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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

#331

Post by mumblemumble »

vadym909 wrote: post #316
chihuahua wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice bikes are $3000 - $10000. That's not something you want to leave chained to a lamp post in the street. Any lock can be picked or cut.

anda great entryway for a budding insurance startup to get customers

There's already Velosurance. It's a good service if you've got a nice bike you're looking to cover.i But it's a heck of a lot cheaper to use a cheap bike as your townie, though, and accept that you might have to replace it every few years.

And it's amazing how strong a theft deterrent crap like stickers can be - it takes 5 seconds with a dremel for a bike thief to grind the serial numbers off a frame so it can't be traced, but the time it takes to scrub stickers off a frame to get it in resellable condition, divided by a cheap frame's resale value, easily works out to an even lower wage than driving for Uber.

Anecdotally, I make my bike up to look like bits are held on with duct tape (they aren't), and in 25 years I've never had a bike stolen. My theory is that thieves aren't looking close enough to figure out that it isn't actually a hoopty bike.

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

#332

Post by mantas »

iknowstuff wrote: post #249
mantas wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Human life in general causes danger, costs, polluting and is selfish. Meanwhile I find "well designed city" environment bad to my mental health. Who (or what?) is it "well designed" for?

Well your finding is wrong. Well designed cities, which are dense and encourage walking, have lots of small businesses along the sidewalk etc., lead to lower occurrence of loneliness and depression (vs. suburban areas).

Alright, let's say my personal experience is wrong. I guess I'm not a well-designed human. Is it a truly good design if people have to be designed for it?

Moving away from downtown to outskirts worked pretty well to my mental health.

Obviously different people have different needs. And even same human being have different needs in different stages of his life. But I find it hard to call something "well designed" if it works only for some people in some walks of life.

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

#333

Post by bobthepanda »

9HZZRfNlpR wrote: post #274
angmarsbane wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd take my bike everywhere if I knew it'd still be there after I finished having lunch, visiting friends, grocery shopping etc. As it is though, my bike isn't even safe chained up in a locked garage.

What's going on in America if absolutely everyone is afraid if theft? Or are the bikes just big target?

- Bikes are an easy target given that most locks are easy to deal with and it’s the only mechanism preventing them from moving; cars are hard if not impossible to hotwire these days

- Bikes are high value but not extremely so, unlike a car, and most police forces do not take bike theft seriously

- Walking around with a stolen bike is a lot less conspicuous than walking around with, say, a stolen TV

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

#334

Post by bobthepanda »

conanbatt wrote: post #294
derefr wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just bikes. Mostly because they're valuable+standardized enough to be easily fenced, and yet not high-value enough for police to bother investigating. It's like leaving MacBooks sitting on street corners.

My understanding is that bike theft is not prosecuted, even if you found someone that stole 1000 bikes. If you stole 10 dollars from a bank, you can bet you are prosecuted. Bikes are just not defended as private property for some reason.

Bike chop shops that do that kind of volume do get prosecuted because it’s relatively easy to show that a place is selling a large volume of scrap metal from bikes.

It is much harder to prove that a thief is responsible for 1000 individual bike thefts, because you’d need evidence for each bike.

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

#335

Post by conanbatt »

bobthepanda wrote: post #334
conanbatt wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is that bike theft is not prosecuted, even if you found someone that stole 1000 bikes. If you stole 10 dollars from a bank, you can bet you are prosecuted. Bikes are just not defended as private property for some reason.

Bike chop shops that do that kind of volume do get prosecuted because it’s relatively easy to show that a place is selling a large volume of scrap metal from bikes. It is much harder to prove that a thief is responsible for 1000 individual bike thefts, because you’d need evidence for each bike.

Proving bike theft is as easy as honeypotting any bike. Its just no prosecuted. It's a cultural blindspot for what I think are probably historical reasons.

You can steal a car priced lower than a bike and get a year in jail. ITs not about the cost of proving anything, it's about the willingness of the institution to enforce it.

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

#336

Post by OkGoDoIt »

mumblemumble wrote: post #93
bransonf wrote: post #42

Does anyone actually think this is a profitable market? Electric scooters are expensive, repair and charging is expensive. It’s a seasonal business. Vandalism/abuse is fairly common. In terms of any environmental benefit, I highly suspect more gasoline is being consumed to collect and distribute scooters than the offset of a few last mile transports. I suspect the cost to the consumer would have to double for it to m…

I can see personal e-scooters as being a great alternative to cars for short trips such as commuting less than 5-ish km to work, or taking the kids to school. However, I still think bicycles are vastly preferable. With a pannier rack you get quite a bit more cargo space, and in the winter, the fact that you're physically exerting yourself helps to keep you warm, which makes for a more comfortable and pleasant trip. A…

I own both a bike and an e-scooter and one of the things I really like about my e-scooter is I can fold it up and bring it in with me to a restaurant or my office or wherever else I am going. A bike I have to find a place to lock it and pray it doesn’t get stolen, as has happened to me multiple times in the past.

This isn’t necessarily applicable to a rental market, but as far as personal ownership the e-scooter is just vastly more convenient in a major city with high rates of bicycle theft.

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

#337

Post by blaser-waffle »

Grue3 wrote: post #326
Symbiote wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I visited Moscow last year, and noticed they have docked scooters: https://www.rbth.com/lifestyle/328422-how-rent-electric-scoo... Plenty of places have undocked bicycles, so a fair comparison is possible.

I live in Moscow and far more people use docked bikes than docked scooters. There aren't that many places where you can ride the scooter smoothly so they're only available in the very center of Moscow where a lot of sidewalks have been repaved recently. And half of the year the weather is not suitable for riding a scooter.

Same story in Canada. I'm in a big city and the scooters aren't really useful outside of the city center, both because of how the scooters do "zones" but also because hills, bike lanes, and sidewalks are very hit-or-miss in terms of quality and safety.

They're a fun novelty, but not a solution to public transit.

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

#338

Post by holler »

catalogia wrote: post #256
holler wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very simple, have you ever rode a scooter? Once I took a ride along the beach in Southern California, it was immediately obvious, and, I was hooked! It's a disruptive, perfect combination of technologies, that immediately antiquates riding a bike for short distances. The main problem is that it's too good, and people with poor balance, poor judgement, or bad luck, have been in accidents which ruined it for everyone e…

Like three quarters of American men, I'm overweight. I'd never use an electric scooter because the absolute last thing I need in my life is an excuse to walk less. I'd wager at least a significant portion of that three quarters probably have thoughts similar to mine. Of the rest, most probably drive instead (which for the particularly obese, is probably a lot more comfortable than a scoooter.) I see a ton more scoote…

Have you ever used one? I get what you're saying, but as an example: my girlfriend and I have on multiple occasions, in multiple cities, used scooters to explore local geographic regions that would otherwise not have been possible in the same time constraint. We would ride across town, then get off and walk around for a bit until we decided to hop back on and ride way across town to another place and do the same thing. So it is possible to still get the exercise etc, with the benefit of being able to cover more turf than possible strictly through walking. Of course you could do the same thing with a bike, but it's more cumbersome and less agile imo.

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

#339

Post by morelisp »

yibg wrote: post #317
rbobby wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it may have to do with the number of options a person has to earn money. To those with few options a shitty job can feel a lot like slavery. Taking someone to task over the technically incorrect use of the word slavery seems a bit pedantic at best.

Income inequality, underemployment and lack of employment opportunities are real problems. But words have meaning, and we as a species have had a pretty ugly history with slavery. Let’s not dilute the meaning of that word when there are others that are more accurate.

Experience demonstrates that there may be a slavery of wages only a little less galling and crushing in its effects than chattel slavery, and this slavery of wages must go down with the other.

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

#340

Post by mixmastamyk »

leetcrew wrote: post #292
mixmastamyk wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately scooters are more dangerous, the little wheels and high center of gravity means eating concrete is more likely than a bike.

there are some scooters you can buy that go way too fast, but the ones you can rent usually max out around 15mph, and that's only on a warm day with a full charge. it's definitely less stable than a bike, but every time I've hit a pothole I've just ended up awkwardly running alongside the scooter for a few steps. I'm not quite sure what people are doing that leads them to eat concrete. I've certainly never seen it ha…

Every once in a while a rock runs in front of your wheel. Also many folks ride on the sidewalk which are uneven here.
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