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Delivery robots take over Chicago sidewalks

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Re: Delivery robots take over Chicago sidewalks

#121

Post by BLKNSLVR »

climb_stealth wrote: post #29
crote wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine how much better for the environment it'd be if your delivery was brought to you via a human-powered bicycle. Or as an in-between: e-bikes and e-mopeds. Using 2,000lb vehicles for last-mile burrito delivery is a "we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas" scenario. Delivery robots are an improvement because literally anything is.

God forbid someone would use their own two legs to walk and eat that burrito at the restaurant /s The extend to which some people get food delivered is absurd. I'm sure there exceptions and reasons and everything, but seriously.

Yep, if you think you're too busy to go out to get food yourself, then you've definitely been breathing in your own farts for too long.

Re: Delivery robots take over Chicago sidewalks

#122

Post by dylan604 »

itsdesmond wrote: post #15

I live in a Chicago neighborhood where these are in use. They have very bright lights, actually blinding you as you approach one at night. They move much faster than is appropriate on a sidewalk. They position themselves in the middle of the sidewalk as opposed to the right hand side, impacting traffic in both directions. They round corners at intersections at below-eye-level, I’ve walked into more than one when they…

> they have inserted themselves and we are to figure it out.

nitpicking a bit, but this reads as they are the robots doing the inserting instead of the companies creating/operating them and not giving a damn about this.

Re: Delivery robots take over Chicago sidewalks

#123

Post by wrs »

johnfn wrote: post #57
wrs wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your overall point is certainly valid, but there's no "dichotomy" there. I'd say "sidewalks are for people, not X" where X is pretty much anything that's not people (including scooters and bikes, even though there are people on them). If those delivery drivers were parked on the sidewalk, it would be a different discussion. Or if the robots were in the bike lane, we'd be saying "bike lanes are for bikes, not robots".

My point is that you aren't simply pushing robots off the sidewalk and getting a better city. You have externalized the problem somewhere else. "Look, our streets are free of garbage", he says, dumping it all into the ocean...

It’s not clear to me there even is a “problem”. We did just fine before there were either robots or DoorDash drivers clogging up the road/sidewalk. (Admittedly DoorDash was very handy in 2020.) The problem is in allowing commercial interests to unilaterally clog public infrastructure.

Re: Delivery robots take over Chicago sidewalks

#124

Post by dylan604 »

Larrikin wrote: post #118
delichon wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never seen one but aren't they festooned with cameras, and live streaming?

The escooters also are supposedly equipped with cameras and other deterants. Has anyone ever gotten in trouble for kicking them in to a bush when they are in the way?

that's not quite the same as asked though is it? knocking a bike/scooter over isn't exactly vandalizing.

Re: Delivery robots take over Chicago sidewalks

#125

Post by echelon »

ElijahLynn wrote: post #2

Valid points by those concerned with taking over the sidewalks. I will also say, people riding electric scooters shouldn't be zooming along at 20mph (or pedal bikes) on sidewalks either, which are a true safety hazard. And on the other side, much better for our environment, to have a lighter weight robot delivering a burrito than a 2,000lb vehicle, in terms of net energy consumption/expenditure.

Atlanta has been an early market for both scooters and various food delivery robots. Both have been a boon for the city.

We've had these delivery robots for about six months now, and they've grown to the point where I see hundreds of delivery robots on the sidewalks each week. Scores of them daily. They're flooding our city, making the long commutes people don't want to.

The reason this is great is that Atlanta's infrastructure is car-centric and spread too far apart to make walking or even biking make sense.

The biking infrastructure we have does no good when it rains and you're twenty minutes from your destination. That same infrastructure also doesn't serve our children or our elderly. Or help when you're sick or tired and need a pick me up.

It's easy to order for a group of people from one of these. To imagine the same group of four people hopping on bikes together to travel twenty minutes to food - that's never once happened in my life. Only certain types of people bike, and you'll invariably find yourself in groups with lots of non-cyclists.

I feel that cyclist culture is bright eyed and idealistic, but not practical. You need a city designed around it, and all the people need to grow up loving it. These delivery robots, Waymo, Lime bikes - they're much more sensible middle grounds for cities like ours. Where people can't bike, or simply don't want to.

Re: Delivery robots take over Chicago sidewalks

#126

Post by dylan604 »

smelendez wrote: post #73
zarzavat wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if you'd consider London to be a safe city but these things won't survive in London either. People are already pissed off about delivery ebike riders, who disobey laws and ride dangerously. But there's very little you can do about humans. A helpless robot that is causing a hazard to pedestrians? A ULEZ-style strike force will be mobilized to drive them out. And what about blind and partially sighted peop…

Fundamentally I think they should just use the road and keep to the right (in the US), like other slow moving vehicles. They’d probably be fine in bike lanes where they exist. Maybe they could enter the sidewalk for half a block at a curb cut like a cyclist would do to complete a delivery.

There's a very clear and obvious reason they are on the sidewalk. Bikes are not "probably fine" in bike lines themselves though. Bikes are mainly visible to drivers. These things are too small to be in the bike lanes let alone in an actual lane of the road. They'll just be a small speed bump to most cars.

Re: Delivery robots take over Chicago sidewalks

#127

Post by hombre_fatal »

abdullahkhalids wrote: post #115
derektank wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, depending on the speed of these vehicles, it seems like bike lanes are the appropriate place for them. A smart city could even offer companies an opportunity to fund the buildout of additional bike lanes if there aren’t any existing in the neighborhood in question

A slow moving robot on a sidewalk in the worst case makes it inconvenient for pedestrians, and robs the rights of those in wheelchairs etc. A medium speed robot in the bike lane in the worst case causes a fatal or broken-bone accident.

True. I don't think they belong in bike lanes nor pedestrian-only sidewalks.

These delivery companies are being subsidized by our already-limited pedestrian infrastructure.

Also, no human should have to move out of the way or trip over some someone's burrito delivery robot.

Re: Delivery robots take over Chicago sidewalks

#128

Post by dangus »

itsdesmond wrote: post #15

I live in a Chicago neighborhood where these are in use. They have very bright lights, actually blinding you as you approach one at night. They move much faster than is appropriate on a sidewalk. They position themselves in the middle of the sidewalk as opposed to the right hand side, impacting traffic in both directions. They round corners at intersections at below-eye-level, I’ve walked into more than one when they…

I don’t know how they’re legal when riding a bicycle on the sidewalk isn’t.

Re: Delivery robots take over Chicago sidewalks

#129

Post by dangus »

Larrikin wrote: post #118
delichon wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never seen one but aren't they festooned with cameras, and live streaming?

The escooters also are supposedly equipped with cameras and other deterants. Has anyone ever gotten in trouble for kicking them in to a bush when they are in the way?

People should carry around blankets and just put them on top. Now it’s stuck.

Re: Delivery robots take over Chicago sidewalks

#130

Post by AmbroseBierce »

dweinus wrote: post #120
whyenot wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you assuming that a human would be more efficient and better for the environment than an electrically powered robot? It is very inefficient (approx 25%) to use food as an energy source, and humans are always burning energy. They can't turn off at night or when they are idle. I think it is very likely that the robot would be better for the environment than the person.

...so, are assuming that the humans stop eating/existing after you replace them with a robot?

UBI maybe? I'm joking, at least when talking about America, because maybe at least one of those Nordic countries will figure it out.
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