111–120 of 132 posts
I still think Bird's success is merely symptomatic of American shortsighted solutions to systemic US urban planning issues. I doubt this will reach the same level of popularity in cities/countries with great public transit, highly walkable streets, and good existing last mile solutions (bikeshares, bikelanes, high bus coverage), but I'm happy to eat my words if I'm just not seeing it and folks from Amsterdam, Seoul,…
Here in Reno we have Lime bikes (the scooters were withdrawn after being deployed without city permission) and they are almost like litter - they are laying around all over the city but I almost never see anyone riding one. I'm all for bikes and bicycling but the fact that they have no designated docking stations means people leave them everywhere and to this old fart it is borderline blight.
oh so the space cars take to park and to ride is not an inconvenience? You're funny.
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I was pretty shocked at how expensive they are in London too. Our public transport isn't cheap compared to mainland Europe, but wow there's no chance I'm paying ~£3-5 for a 10-15 minute ride vs £2.90 for a peak tube journey, £1.50 for 90 mins of bus usage, or £2 for 30 minutes on a bike.
I tested li.me e-bikes in London for the 3 times I had the free start ride (invitee bonus). The bikes are ok, the electric push helps (you still have to pedal, but it levels out the effort, so going uphill is kind of the same effort as going level), and the convenience of just taking them from wherever and leave them where you feel like is really nice. But holy shit they are expensive. My commute by bike would be apr…
Shooting along to a station and then letting the tube get me the 13 miles across London and then jumping back on the scooter was great.
Downsides:
This wasn't long after the tube bombing and I was stopped a few times to discuss the scooter - was it petrol powered? Was it safe to take on the tube)
It was heavy (this was 2004 and I know they have come a long way)
It wasn't fun in the rain
Stowing it on a train or bus was a hassle (again this was a 2004 model - they likely fold better now)
Had a vague unease that I'd get stopped for either riding on the road or the pavement - potential risks of getting points on your licence.
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In the end I actually got a Razor push scooter and got nearly the same benefit, but with no charging.
But finally I got a job with room to store bikes, and a shower and never looked back. Far faster than any other option for me, and paid for itself very swiftly (started on a £150 bike, and worked way up to a nicer one in time with the savings I'd made.)
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What about the American mind makes electric scooters so alluring? That statement sounds ridiculous.
I don’t know and I can’t explain it. If you mention a train to an American they will start talking about how far it is from Miami to Seattle as if that matters and despite the fact that Ohio is more densely populated than Spain. If you bring up walking someone will ask how you can walk home from the grocery store, apparently unaware of the fact that 95% of people bring home their food by foot. If you talk about bikin…
I don’t know and I can’t explain it.
It's my experience that you can say something 99% of people agree with, the 99% don't feel the need to reply with their support. But the 1% who disagree do feel the need to say so. And forums will validate this, with upvotes for well-reasoned discussion (i.e. disagreement), and downvotes for 'me too' comments.
If you posted "The bald eagle is a majestic creature" I'd get downvoted for replying "This! You tell 'em" but I'd get upvoted for replying "Bald eagles are much smaller than wedge-tailed eagles, and they have a call so sickly film makers use the call of the red tailed hawk instead"
Well said.
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oh so the space cars take to park and to ride is not an inconvenience? You're funny.
his point, using your analogy, is that cars have a designated parking space, but these dockless vehicles do not.
Can we please get parked scooters off the sidewalk where they present a safety hazard to visually and mobility impaired people?
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> It's the fact that the riders of these "e-scooters" almost always ride on the sidewalks / footpaths and cause safety hazard to pedestrians. It's more dangerous to ride them on streets, even on bike paths. Who cares if it's illegal? I'd rather ride on the sidewalk then get hit by a car trying to pass me at 45 mph.
> Who cares if it's illegal? The pedestrians that are endangered by relatively high speed motorized vehicles riding on sidewalks care. It's totally reasonable for you to not want to ride a scooter on the street, but that doesn't entitle you to break the law and make sidewalks less safe for others.
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> A Bird costs ₪5 to unlock and ₪0.5 per minute of use ($1.34 and $0.13). Wow, I find that pretty expensive. I don't have scooter numbers for comparison and no idea aboul general cost of living in TLV, but in Munich I pay - 1 EUR for 30min of rental bike ( negligible yearly cost of 3 EUR/year) - 2.80 EUR for public transport (1.40 for short trips) So yeah, the scooter is electric, but are people really using them for…
In Sweden there is Lime competing with the Swedish VOI. They both charge 10 sek (USD 1.1) to unlock, where VOI charges 0.165 and Lime charges 0.330 per minute. Bus stops are everywhere and a single ticket costs $2.75 where a 24 hour ticket in the same city zone costs $5.50 (so you always get this if returning), in addition to 25% off any rider in addition to the first on the ticket. Riding to work (5 min) and back fr…
This was due to the unfortunate fact that the breaks suddenly engaged in mid ride with partially grave consequences.
It's a bit of a bummer when your scooter schreeches to a grinding halt, when going 25 KM/H.
The potentially bad thing is that your insurer may balk on your claim.