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What Dockless Bikes and Scooters Are Exposing

haveago.city

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Re: What Dockless Bikes and Scooters Are Exposing

#141

Post by onion2k »

Angostura wrote: post #137
gkoberger wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean... like Getaround and Zipcar already do? The streets are filled with companies using public spaces: Fedex deliveries blocking the road, sidewalk signs for bars, Getaround rentals, food carts, mailboxes, ATMs, parking meters, Scoot scooters, taxi lines, Lyft/Ubers, Redbox DVD rentals, annoying Greenpeace petition people, construction, billboards, etc. I don't think it's a cost-saving measure for scooter/bike…

Certainly, where I live in London, Zipcar has arranged with the council to have special bays marked, reserved for them. The council like car-sharing, so are happy - but it is done in a manageable way.

I would how risky that is for Zipcar. What incentive would there be for the council to say no to a competitor offering more money for the spaces?

Re: What Dockless Bikes and Scooters Are Exposing

#142

Post by pmontra »

hapless wrote: post #2

If Hertz or Avis attempted to use public space to park their inventory, local residents and city officials would pitch a fit. Public parking exists for the benefit of the public at large, not as a cost-saving measure for rental firms. The same is true of bicycles. You can store your private bicycle almost anywhere you like in public. But city fathers will naturally take a dim view of a business using that public spac…

Car sharing companies do that around the world all the time: people park the cars of those companies among privately owned cars. In my country those companies pay a license to city councils and get the right to enter limited traffic zones and park in areas that require a fee. Bike sharing companies pay a license too.

Re: What Dockless Bikes and Scooters Are Exposing

#143

Post by gcb0 »

onion2k wrote: post #141
Angostura wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certainly, where I live in London, Zipcar has arranged with the council to have special bays marked, reserved for them. The council like car-sharing, so are happy - but it is done in a manageable way.

I would how risky that is for Zipcar. What incentive would there be for the council to say no to a competitor offering more money for the spaces?

uk gov might not work like a greed corporation as its usa counterparts. usually when a deal is stabilished with one company, others can jump in for the same price/share. the worst that would happen for zip car is to have to share the spaces.

Re: What Dockless Bikes and Scooters Are Exposing

#144

Post by Nursie »

Angostura wrote: post #139
woah wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The inconvenience and danger caused by cars is so much more. You have to be on alert to avoid being killed by them. Huge swaths of valuable city real estate are devoted to free or low priced subsidized storage of cars for entitled car owners. It's astounding that this has gone on for so long and it needs to be stopped.

I seldom see cars driving on the pavement.

Yet cars kill many pedestrians on pavements every year.

Re: What Dockless Bikes and Scooters Are Exposing

#145

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

>> These new lightweight EVs keep most of the benefits of cars, cut travel times, are easy and convenient, help flatten hills, increase range, and marginalize fatigue and sweating, without the terrible drawbacks of cars: their enormous weight, size, danger, inefficiency, huge parking costs, pollution, expensive infrastructure, degradation of neighborhoods, etc.

Everybody is trying to sell you something. The worst are trying to sell you what you want. The best are trying to sell you what you need.

Of course, there is always an alternative. In this case: walk everywhere, reduce your risk of a heart attack.

Re: What Dockless Bikes and Scooters Are Exposing

#146

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

burlesona wrote: post #14

From the article: “If cities allow, and mandate that we be able to park cars everywhere, why shouldn’t bikes have the same convenience, especially considering they require 10 times less space than cars and offer the enormous efficiency, environmental, cost, and health benefits listed above?” Alternatively we could drop the entitlement to drive and park cars everywhere and the regulations forcing that choice on the co…

>> Alternatively we could drop the entitlement to drive and park cars everywhere and the regulations forcing that choice on the country.

Amen, but it ain't gonna happen. Not with billions spent on making cars that drive and park themselves.

Re: What Dockless Bikes and Scooters Are Exposing

#147

Post by icantdrive55 »

s0rce wrote: post #104
bunderbunder wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fedex deliveries blocking the road for a short time are generally considered preferable to removing a whack of on-street parking from every block in order to have an excess of loading zones, or not being able to have deliveries at all. sidewalk signs for bars are regulated, at least in my city. They have to leave (IIRC) 6' of clearance on the sidewalk so they don't obstruct pedestrian traffic. Whether those rules are…

"Fedex deliveries blocking the road" Preferable to cars, maybe, since it frees up parking, however, around here they simply park in the bike lane. I go by a UPS store daily and there are often 1-2 trucks both parked in the bike lane.

I kinda get the need for commercial drivers to not obey laws most of us are scared of. They are being overworked because of us, and our convient buying patterns.

That said, I would love to see fees/fines for mini code violations tied to a person's/company's Income.

I get a $50 parking ticket. Why--because I'm poor. (My biggest fear is getting a ticket. These high priced tickets are a real concern for people like myself.)

FedEx would get a $10,000 ticket.

I would do like to see fees/fines tied to income. And "we don't have the technology" is no an excuse anymore.

Re: What Dockless Bikes and Scooters Are Exposing

#148

Post by burbuk »

woah wrote: post #99
mrharrison wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a biker, having to park my bike at Walgreens and seeing the same Jump bikes parked at the bike stand, from the day before, and nowhere to park my bike is definitely a nuisance. Didn't really encounter this issue before, people normally come and go with their bikes. As a walker, when entitled scooter peeps jump on the sidewalk and start whizzing around you, and at almost hit you, it's a nuisance as well. I like the…

The inconvenience and danger caused by cars is so much more. You have to be on alert to avoid being killed by them. Huge swaths of valuable city real estate are devoted to free or low priced subsidized storage of cars for entitled car owners. It's astounding that this has gone on for so long and it needs to be stopped.

The alternative to a rented bike isn't a car though, it's a bike.

Re: What Dockless Bikes and Scooters Are Exposing

#149

Post by T-N-T »

matttproud wrote: post #130

This article's author has a chip on the shoulders regarding automobiles: > pick up their cars and drop them off _anywhere_ in the city (emphasis mine) Really? One may not park a car _anywhere_. There are typically laws dictating when, where, and for how long. Whether the laws are respected or enforced are a different matter. Individuals inconsiderately stranding means of transportation across the city is patently uns…

>One may not park a car _anywhere_. There are typically laws dictating when, where, and for how long. Whether the laws are respected or enforced are a different matter.

The law is broken so often it might as well not exist AT all, at least in my country. Vigilantes here have started to take pictures of cars that are "parked like shit" to shame the drivers publicly because the law has been insufficient, the punishments not applied often enough or not harsh enough to truly dissuade car drivers from not parking on a sidewalk, bikelane, in front of a shop or even at times directly on a part of a road... http://www.garecommeunemerde.fr/gcum/galerie/

The website gallery isn't showing a tiny minority. I see examples of this every day as soon as I leave my home.

Re: What Dockless Bikes and Scooters Are Exposing

#150

Post by ranko »

nicky0 wrote: post #135
jessaustin wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you had biked in both places, you wouldn't doubt it. Sure not every autocager sees (or drives as if they see) a cyclist in the road, but the cyclist can see and hear everything around in way that's just not possible on the sidewalk. (I say this as someone who is missing one eye.) Also, cars aren't the only things with doors.

I feel like I'm missing something. I can't understand how it's more likely for a car to hit a cyclist on the sidewalk than the road. Cars drive in the road. They do not drive on the sidewalk.

They drive across the sidewalk when entering or leaving driveways, and drivers do not always see cyclists in those circumstances.
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