Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Bird CEO on scooter startup copycats, unit economics, safety and seasonality

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 132 posts

Re: Bird CEO on scooter startup copycats, unit economics, safety and seasonality

#31

Post by ardy42 »

elcomet wrote: post #8
Tiktaalik wrote: post #7

Scooters are only truly safe in a separated bike/scooter lane, so given that cities have to invest in that infrastructure, they should ban Bird and others and only allow their own bike/scooter systems that are integrated into their own public transportation networks.

Cars are only safe in a separated car lane, so why not ban cars, remove the car lanes and transform them into bike / scooter lanes ?

> Cars are only safe in a separated car lane, so why not ban cars, remove the car lanes and transform them into bike / scooter lanes ?

Because streets were designed as car lanes, and bikes/scooters are niche transportation technologies [1] when compared to cars?

[1] Bikes and scooters are really only useful for short-distance individual transport. They do not handle long distances, groups, and cargo very well.

Re: Bird CEO on scooter startup copycats, unit economics, safety and seasonality

#32

Post by hawaiianbrah »

8ytecoder wrote: post #27
ggm wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I (also?) think these disruptive transport plays are a bit grubby, and probably predating public transport shared costs and the commons. Here in brisbane, they basically became scofflaw over "riding without helmet" and "riding on pavement" to force the issue. Why the state authorities caved instead of taking them to the cleaners is beyond me. We've already started to have drunks on scooters, elderly people feeling ex…

I see these scooters as somewhat good for the society if it'd be accompanied by enforcement- proper docks or allotted areas and no riding on the sidewalk and following the rules of traffic flow. As it is right now it's a mobility issue for the disabled. I come from a country with no sidewalks with the disabled forever left to the mercy of their caretakers. I was simply amazed by the level of planning to accommodate t…

I hear that complaint and I think it was certainly more true when first launched, at least in Seattle and DC. Nowadays it seems like people are parking them better on average

Re: Bird CEO on scooter startup copycats, unit economics, safety and seasonality

#33

Post by sdinsn »

shard972 wrote: post #26
baroffoos wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can ride a bike much faster with no license.

Well it's a given bike riders should be licensed and plated. It's insane that in many places bike riders using the public roads don't require 3rd party insurance.

> it's a given bike riders should be licensed and plated

No, it's not a given. I've never heard anyone want that before

Re: Bird CEO on scooter startup copycats, unit economics, safety and seasonality

#34

Post by 8ytecoder »

hawaiianbrah wrote: post #32
8ytecoder wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see these scooters as somewhat good for the society if it'd be accompanied by enforcement- proper docks or allotted areas and no riding on the sidewalk and following the rules of traffic flow. As it is right now it's a mobility issue for the disabled. I come from a country with no sidewalks with the disabled forever left to the mercy of their caretakers. I was simply amazed by the level of planning to accommodate t…

I hear that complaint and I think it was certainly more true when first launched, at least in Seattle and DC. Nowadays it seems like people are parking them better on average

At least not in my metro. It's still haphazardly scattered everywhere. The thing is it need not be the riders themselves who do this. Unlike a docked bike that can't be moved the scooters can be lifted by anyone. Vandals definitely move it, throw it in water bodies, cut the wire and sometimes just knock it over.

Re: Bird CEO on scooter startup copycats, unit economics, safety and seasonality

#35

Post by megy »

keerthiko wrote: post #3

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,…

I don't agree, London and Paris really took to their bike share systems. This will appeal to even more people.

Re: Bird CEO on scooter startup copycats, unit economics, safety and seasonality

#36

Post by masonic »

robkop wrote: post #15
MauranKilom wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might just be me, but I'm having a hard time following your post due to these terms: > scofflaw > taking to the cleaners > juicers I normally would just go look it up, but this is a high density of jargon/colloquialisms. Or maybe it's not and I just never heard them, but I'm just offering my data point here.

Juicers is a lime only term afaik (it referd to someone who charges lime scooters) and the rest are reasonably common Australian expressions (maybe scofflaw is a little less common).

In U.S. vernacular, "juicer" generally connotes someone using performance enhancing drugs.

Re: Bird CEO on scooter startup copycats, unit economics, safety and seasonality

#38

Post by masonic »

baroffoos wrote: post #30
shard972 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it's a given bike riders should be licensed and plated. It's insane that in many places bike riders using the public roads don't require 3rd party insurance.

For what purpose other than locking kids and poor people out of the world and worsening traffic and health issues. If 2 cyclists crash in to each other they will cause minimal property damage and any medical costs should be covered by the government. There are so many other situations where people can accidentally cause property damage that don't require insurance. Its just the cars have a very high risk of causing h…

  If 2 cyclists crash in to each other they will cause minimal property damage
Cyclists hitting pedestrians have caused death in SF.

Re: Bird CEO on scooter startup copycats, unit economics, safety and seasonality

#39

Post by derekdahmer »

keerthiko wrote: post #3

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,…

FWIW I sometimes use a Lime to get to work in Oakland on a straight-shot road, with a bike lane, that already has a bus doing that exact route.

I use the scooter because its faster than the bus for about the same price ~$3. And super fun.

Re: Bird CEO on scooter startup copycats, unit economics, safety and seasonality

#40

Post by ggm »

MauranKilom wrote: post #10
ggm wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I (also?) think these disruptive transport plays are a bit grubby, and probably predating public transport shared costs and the commons. Here in brisbane, they basically became scofflaw over "riding without helmet" and "riding on pavement" to force the issue. Why the state authorities caved instead of taking them to the cleaners is beyond me. We've already started to have drunks on scooters, elderly people feeling ex…

It might just be me, but I'm having a hard time following your post due to these terms: > scofflaw > taking to the cleaners > juicers I normally would just go look it up, but this is a high density of jargon/colloquialisms. Or maybe it's not and I just never heard them, but I'm just offering my data point here.

> scofflaw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scofflaw > taking to the cleaners https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/take_to_the_cleaners > juicers https://www.reddit.com/r/LimeBike/comments/89tpqy/is_anyone_...

Apologies.

Post reply on HN