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Lime shuts in 12 markets, lays off around 100

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Re: Lime shuts in 12 markets, lays off around 100

#171

Post by asdff »

Johnny555 wrote: post #46
dustinmoris wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This model works with cars (e.g. ZipCar) but with scooters I don't see how this is possible, unless the entire city is quite literally littered with scooters. If I have to walk 5-10 min to the nearest car which I can unlock from my phone and then use to drive 5 miles somewhere then it's great, but if I have to walk 5-10 minutes to the nearest scooter pickup so I can scooter somewhere for 5-10 minutes then it sort of…

If you have to walk 3 blocks for a scooter, then they really aren't "ubiquitous", I'm not a scooter user, but they seem to litter the sidewalks around here, so it's usually only a 1 or 2 minute walk. As you said, if it's much longer than that, then there's no point -- I don't think I'd want to ride a scooter more than a mile or so anyway, so if it takes me 10 minutes to find one, I may as well just walk the whole way…

Even in LA which has a huge number of scooters, there's been times where I've scooted someplace then when I turn around to leave someone unlocked it.

If it's getting later in the day most of the scooters you find are going to be scattered in all sorts of very strange areas, many times in gated apartments, and/or with not enough charge to get you home. Or maybe you have to settle for that scooter with the screen dangling out of it by the wires and the handlebars at 45* relative to the wheel that everyone else was just not desperate enough to use.

Re: Lime shuts in 12 markets, lays off around 100

#172

Post by mdorazio »

ProAm wrote: post #132
rory096 wrote: post #96

Curious how many of the scooter-haters in this thread drive cars daily. In my experience they're a huge boon to walkable, car-free or car-lite lifestyles, and all but useless in the suburban parking-minimum wastelands that characterize most of the United States' postwar built environment.

It's makes urban sidewalks look like they are strewn with litter. It's the reason why Im glad to see they are banned. They make walkable cities less walkable.

Not just strewn with litter, but also more dangerous for pedestrians because many scooter riders use the sidewalks as full-speed slalom courses. If scooters have designated parking spaces and designated non-sidewalk rideable areas/lanes they are great. Most places do not have these things yet and enforcing them takes a lot of the convenience factor away from the platform as well.

Re: Lime shuts in 12 markets, lays off around 100

#173

Post by asdff »

vkou wrote: post #116
Johnny555 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the advantage of rental is the ability to drop off or pick up anywhere -- you can ride a scooter to the office, walk or bus to a restaurant after work, then rent a different scooter home. Or you might take a scooter from work to the restaurant, and you don't need to worry about parking the rental scooter securely or carrying it around with you. But that only works if scooters are ubiquitous enough that you ca…

The thing is, there's no reason why my wife can't take the scooter with her, into the office. It's not like she's riding a moped, or even a bicycle!

The ones you can buy actually fold down in half and are barely bigger than a yogamat. Very practical for office and subway.

Re: Lime shuts in 12 markets, lays off around 100

#174

Post by wil421 »

vkou wrote: post #112
wil421 wrote: post #63

Good riddance from Atlanta. The City had to start fining people to get the scooters off the sidewalks. When I worked in midtown I’d have to step over scooters lying on the streets.

Maybe if scooters could be parked for free on nearly any curb, like cars, you wouldn't be stepping over them.

Where on earth do you have to pay for scooter parking? Scooter parking is free. Slamming them down sideways without using a kick stand is free unless a cop sees you.

Re: Lime shuts in 12 markets, lays off around 100

#175

Post by mdorazio »

leoedin wrote: post #26
hugs wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this (under desk storage) why folding bikes exist?

Folding bikes are either clumsy or expensive compared to electric scooters like the Xiaomi. The folding mechanism is rarely anywhere near as nice as a scooter.

What? Decent folding bikes have excellent mechanisms these days. Meanwhile most electric scooters don’t fold at all and have a tendency to topple over if you touch them wrong.

Re: Lime shuts in 12 markets, lays off around 100

#176

Post by lazyasciiart »

Hasz wrote: post #127

This whole model is incredibly, impossibly, flawed. 9/10 times, my net displacement for the day is 0. If my net displacement is zero, I would prefer to own the medium I'm using to move. Bike, car, scooter etc. Only exception is stuff with really high capital costs, like planes and trains, in which case I pay a small fee to avoid owning a railway or airline. For scooters, there are no high capitals costs; the cost of…

Why would anyone want to own a car? You have to park it, both at your house and at your destination, you have to do maintenance on it, yada yada. What a waste of time and space.

Re: Lime shuts in 12 markets, lays off around 100

#177

Post by zymhan »

logifail wrote: post #157
the_imp wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole model of needing to own your own transportation devices is flawed. 9/10 times, I'm moving from one location with many other people in it to another location with many other people. I would prefer not needing to own any medium in order to move between them, but instead be able to use a public service to do so. Bus, tram, metro, citybike, scooter. I'd really rather not own stuff with really high capital costs…

> The whole model of needing to own your own transportation devices is flawed. 99% of all our family journeys begin and end at our home. Happily we own two (ICE) vehicles, they're sitting outside the house right now ready to be used tomorrow. (As an aside) I've just booked a flight for Sunday (o/w flight $46 including all taxes and fees). I'm flying the best part of 600mi, so I've booked a rental car at the destinati…

I'm not sure how this refutes the idea that you don't need to own a car in a well-designed city

Re: Lime shuts in 12 markets, lays off around 100

#178

Post by jtcruthers »

robrenaud wrote: post #169
Hasz wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, but public transit is inherently the slowest option. I have no desire to make 10 stops before I get where I'm going. I also have zero desire to rent my modes, as that encourages literally rent seeking behavior. Either we need to figure out how to drop off and pickup passengers at speed, or penalize individualized transport that is space inefficient (like cars). Good luck pursuing the latter in the US; punitive me…

> Ah, but public transit is inherently the slowest option. This isn't true if you are in a dense city with good public transit. This is currently mid day (3 PM), and it's about 30% faster (21 minutes vs 29 minutes) to go from my current location in Manhattan to a bar I enjoy hanging out in Brooklyn via public transit than car, according to Google Maps. It would be even better around rush hour.

There are maybe 2 or 3 cities in the entire United States that are dense enough with good enough public transportation. The vast majority of the population cannot relate.

Re: Lime shuts in 12 markets, lays off around 100

#179

Post by ChrisKingWebDev »

jMyles wrote: post #72

I wonder how many startup scooters have been thrown away. Have we filled a stadium yet? Will there someday be a museum located at a landfill which is full of these things? I generally think that this kind of final mile solution is a good one, but I can't help but feel like a lot of these scooters are experiencing very short service lives.

Not exactly the same, but these photos are pretty mindblowing:

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/08/china-abandoned-bi...

Re: Lime shuts in 12 markets, lays off around 100

#180

Post by smallgovt »

Hasz wrote: post #161
the_imp wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole model of needing to own your own transportation devices is flawed. 9/10 times, I'm moving from one location with many other people in it to another location with many other people. I would prefer not needing to own any medium in order to move between them, but instead be able to use a public service to do so. Bus, tram, metro, citybike, scooter. I'd really rather not own stuff with really high capital costs…

Ah, but public transit is inherently the slowest option. I have no desire to make 10 stops before I get where I'm going. I also have zero desire to rent my modes, as that encourages literally rent seeking behavior. Either we need to figure out how to drop off and pickup passengers at speed, or penalize individualized transport that is space inefficient (like cars). Good luck pursuing the latter in the US; punitive me…

>> Ah, but public transit is inherently the slowest option.

I don't see how it is 'inherently' the slowest, especially given the traffic patterns that inherently result from private transit options.

>> I have no desire to make 10 stops before I get where I'm going.

The point of public transit in the form of e-scooters and e-bikes is to make your door-to-door commute one trip.

>> I also have zero desire to rent my modes, as that encourages literally rent seeking behavior.

Most people just care about convenience and price. Shared mobility options like e-bikes and e-scooters check both boxes if they can reach scale.

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