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Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

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Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#241

Post by randyrand »

ProfessorLayton wrote: post #226
randyrand wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Segway ES 1 (highly highly recommend it) For a time they were $300 on amazon. And then I also bought an external battery pack for cheap somewhere else.

Thanks for the recommendation! They're currently $399 on Amazon, however, the scooter seems to have a rating of 3.3/5, which is concerning — with reviewers noting various build quality issues. Anything with a 4+ rating and enough reviews seems to go for ~800+, which is why I haven't purchased one yet.

it’s true. i’ve had some issues but they’re minor enough to fix yourself if you’re handy.

loose handle bars.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#242

Post by iso1337 »

justinator wrote: post #200
iso1337 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is when you have to figure out how to get the bike to the start of your last mile, deal with flat tyres, etc. With these scooters, you can take public transportation (keep in mind some systems don't allow bikes on their transit systems) to somewhere, then solve the last mile problem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_mile_(transportation) Not to mention $200+ to own a bike may not seem like a lot to you, but coul…

Not to mention $200+ to own a bike may not seem like a lot to you, but could be a lot to someone with low income. The capex cost can be prohibitive. Compared to a car, it's very cheap. Flat tires... hmm: I average about one a year, maybe. It's not the biggest deal. Are flat tires really that big of a barrier to entry?

Most people I know don't know how to, or couldn't be bothered to, change a bicycle tire. You have to also bring around a spare tire, a portable air pump, etc... or face the prospect of walking your bike somewhere.

Perhaps we should differentiate here between bike ownership and these bike/scooter share approaches. Scooters also have flat tires.

Compare ownership to a shared scooter or bike service, where these costs are in effect shared amongst everyone. If your scooter breaks down, you can leave it and seek other forms of transportation.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#243

Post by xur17 »

anonytrary wrote: post #230
sonofaplum wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vehicles that move faster than pedestrians should go on the road, like bicycles do. As a bike rider, its a vastly superior option that going on the sidewalk.

In more developed areas, there are three options. Fast (main road for cars), medium (bike lane) and slow (sidewalks). I'd imagine birds would ride in the medium and slow lanes. They go up to 15 MPH, which is the run-speed of a human. Should runners be on the bike lane? I don't think so.

> In more developed areas, there are three options. Fast (main road for cars), medium (bike lane) and slow (sidewalks). I'd imagine birds would ride in the medium and slow lanes.

And to be clear 'bike lane' != road shoulder with a bike painted on it. A bike lane should have at least some amount of separation from the road in the same way that sidewalks are separated.

I'm hopeful that the popularity of scooters speeds up the adoption of medium speed lanes.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#244

Post by jartelt »

smallgovt wrote: post #144
jartelt wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A 1x return on a large investment like these would not be good for a venture fund. They probably need to return 3x on the whole fund to get their carry/bonus, so a 3x return for a given investment is the bare minimum for success. They almost certainly would not have made these investments unless they believed they could make a return of >3x.

> They almost certainly would not have made these investments unless they believed they could make a return of >3x. Softbank isn't like a traditional VC. They structured their fund like private equity where they retain a percentage of returns above x% per year. In addition to this, they take a 1% management fee regardless of returns. For most VC's, you'd expect the carry to represent the majority of incentive. But, S…

Bird's latest round was led by Sequoia and Lime's latest round was led by GV, so I am not sure why the Softbank is relevant.

Perhaps Softbank funds the next rounds, but GV and Sequoia are still going to be looking for a much bigger exit than 1x.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#245

Post by ravenstine »

cortesoft wrote: post #68
fourmii wrote: post #50

These scooters and scooter companies seem pretty divisive, especially on HN. I understand they're operating in grey areas, I guess kinda like Uber before them, but they are causing (I think) positive disruption. I personally love these scooters. I'm living in Australia now where we don't have them. But last month I took a 3 week road trip from LAX to DC and back so I could hit cities I hadn't been to before. And in m…

I think the big issue that most people have with them is the large externality of having scooters littered around the sidewalk. In a lot of places in West Los Angeles, you are having to step around them constantly if you walk down the street. People literally just drop them in the middle of the sidewalk, because there is no incentive for them to not do that. This means that everyone who doesn't use the service has to…

I feel bad for people in wheelchairs that have to come to a dead stop for these scooters. I live in Santa Monica and regularly see scooters left flat in the middle of the sidewalk. I mean, what the actual fuck? The fact that so many people that use these services lack any respect makes me hesitate to ride the scooters(and thereby join them).

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#246

Post by ravenstine »

jakevn wrote: post #147
L_Rahman wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Functionally this is the easiest problem in the world to solve. It's the same solution for scooters and dockless bikeshare. Take two parking spots in each block. Put beacons on the corners or some kind of signaling tape around the whole thing. Only let users drop off rides inside that spot. Bonus points for having non-locking racks to help organize. People get to litter their car on the side of my road, often in the…

People keep bringing up this problem because it's still a problem. If it's so easy to solve, why is it not solved? Cities should simply impound any scooter not properly parked and charge $200 to get it back. Since solving the parking problem is so easy, this will push Bird/Lime into finally solving it.

> Cities should simply impound any scooter not properly parked and charge $200 to get it back. Since solving the parking problem is so easy, this will push Bird/Lime into finally solving it.

That's true, but then said cities would lose the prestige of being a part of Silicon Valley innovation.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#247

Post by SamReidHughes »

cortesoft wrote: post #118
SamReidHughes wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about all the cars littered on the sides of the street? Don't you have to walk around those too?

No? If you tried to park a car on the sidewalk you will get towed. I mean, in Santa Monica if you are 1 minute late past the time on the sign you will get towed. The cars are parked in designated spots on the road, with all sorts of rules about how long and how much you have to pay for the spot. In Santa Monica, pretty much every available parking spot has a meter that means you have to pay to park there, and are lim…

If the argument for parking is that it's democratically decided, then being able to leave scooters around wherever is also democratically decided. Santa Monica could pass a scooter law whenever it wants to. They don't have a policy on nose-picking or walking without looking where you're going either.

The actual basis of your complaint is that you like parking, but you don't like scooters being put wherever.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#248

Post by cwkoss »

madengr wrote: post #143
cwkoss wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Set up a shop buying and selling "secondhand scooter parts" - don't ask too many questions and you could make a nice profit while incentivizing others to dismantle their inventory.

I was thinking scrap value. Toss them in an industrial shredder, sans battery pack, then separate out the metals. Maybe a mobile shredder.

Yep, plus battery packs, wheels, and electronics would probably have some resale value once parted out, especially if you can provide larger lots.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#249

Post by stingrae »

dilap wrote: post #232
stingrae wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, what is your issue with skip/scoot? All the services seems to be similar to me?

I haven't tried 'em in a bit, so to be fair, maybe it's better now. But last time I tried: Scooter coverage was too sparse to be useful. If you did try to chase down one of the sparsely scattered scooters, usually it would be missing. No way to make it play a sound to help locate it, no way to report it was missing. Gave up and just kept skating everywhere. Whereas I found Lime and Bird to be a practical alternative…

That sounds like a different issue. SF limited the number of scooters each company, Skip/Scoot, could deploy. When Bird and Lime launched in the city they had no limits, so they flooded it with scooters.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#250

Post by hyperpallium »

fourmii wrote: post #50

These scooters and scooter companies seem pretty divisive, especially on HN. I understand they're operating in grey areas, I guess kinda like Uber before them, but they are causing (I think) positive disruption. I personally love these scooters. I'm living in Australia now where we don't have them. But last month I took a 3 week road trip from LAX to DC and back so I could hit cities I hadn't been to before. And in m…

Just BTW, Lime are in Sydney and Brisbane https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Lime_(transportation_company)
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