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Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

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Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#331

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

randyrand wrote: post #139

A lot of this evaluation assumes the price stays the same. $1 + 15 cents a minute. I think we'll see prices come down 80%. These scooter companies will face more competition than uber and Lyft do because people are happy grabbing the first scooter they see when walking. My personal scooter costs a third of a cent per mile of electricity + $350 to buy it. I'm at 150 miles so far, and could easily see this thing lastin…

They have a life cycle of 3 months, so $3 per day.

They can only be ridden for 50 minutes before they need charged, which costs $20, which comes down to $0.40 a minute.

I don't see the unit cost economics, let alone how the prices could come down by 80%.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#332

Post by baroffoos »

jliptzin wrote: post #299
BurningFrog wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber stores the route of your trip anyway. So all info you withhold from them is the few meters walk from where you ordered to where you got picked up.

Probably stored indefinitely. Imagine 30 years from now, a company being able to go back and check on the current president's ride history when he was in his 20s.

> Imagine 30 years from now, a company

Not just a company, the current state of things is every private company database will be hacked and leaked and available to the general public.

Treat all data you give to someone else as public data now and use fake info where ever possible.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#333

Post by baroffoos »

Uehreka wrote: post #225
anonytrary wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Baltimore used to have a bike share, but I've heard it's being shut down and even when it was up they had a hard time keeping bikes in all the stalls. Sorry if these are stupid questions, but isn't this a problem with Bird? I see random birds all over the place. Can someone explain why bikes can't be left around randomly like a bird can?

Not a stupid question! The bikes in the Baltimore bike share (and I think also the NYC bike share) had electric motors that would work with the rider to make peddling easier. Thus they had to be left in charging “yokes” when you were done with them. As for why a non-powered bike couldn’t just be left around, here are a few thoughts: - As some people have mentioned, bikes are just bigger, and take up way more sidewalk…

I have heard the anti theft devices have gone off while people try and pick them up and move them out of the way from blocking the path

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#334

Post by asdff »

lazyjones wrote: post #318

Is the business model sustainable? They do need people to pick these scooters up, charge them at home and deploy them somewhere.

Like any gig economy job, people have gotten religious at it. There's a guy by my neighborhood who drives slowly with a brand new sprinter van while another loads the scooters into the moving vehicle. There is no shortage of people willing to rack up $100 a day on the side.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#335

Post by asdff »

askaboutit wrote: post #7

Stand up scooters feel so unstable. Why not just add a seat and allow a seated scooter that’s foldable. The problem with last mile transport is that the laws in many countries need electric bikes to have peddles and peddle assistance. Just let people have a certain power and max speed and they will drop the car and replace it with a powered scooter. Aka, China.

Have you ridden one?

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#336

Post by asdff »

criddell wrote: post #5
samfisher83 wrote: post #2

I loved using Lime, but I can see cities banning it like SF. You aren't supposed to ride the scooter on side walks and many people do it. People just leave it in random places and I know some cities don't like this.

SF allows scooters, but not Bird or Lime because of their conduct.

Ahh, yes. It was the companies who rode them on the sidewalks.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#337

Post by baroffoos »

superfrank wrote: post #152
justinator wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Privately owning a bike is not cost prohibitive, you know.

Privately owning a bike comes with a ton of hassles though. - I live in a 570ft studio so storage space is limited. We have bike storage in my building, but it's $15 a month. - If I go somewhere and bring the bike with me, I have to bring it back. If it starts raining, I can't just choose to leave the bike and take an Uber home. - If I'm on a bike and I meet up with people that aren't, coordinating travel is a huge p…

You might want to consider a foldable bike. They seem to address a lot of your issues.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#338

Post by baroffoos »

justinator wrote: post #203
jyrkesh wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could be from the perspective of storage and maintenance. For me, one of the hardest things about owning a bike is where the hell to put it. I live in a city where I can't lock it up outside overnight or it'll eventually be stolen. And as someone else mentioned, flat tires are a pain, checking/maintaining brakes are a pain...I can afford to have someone else do it, but that's still way more of a hassle than just b…

* It could be from the perspective of storage and maintenance. For me, one of the hardest things about owning a bike is where the hell to put it. I live in a city where I can't lock it up outside overnight or it'll eventually be stolen.* Hang it from a hook. And as someone else mentioned, flat tires are a pain, checking/maintaining brakes are a pain...I can afford to have someone else do it, but that's still way more…

Since I put tire liners inside my tires I haven't had a single puncture.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#339

Post by baroffoos »

bradlys wrote: post #136
briandear wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Helmets are important (I always wear one,) however, government ought not force people to wear them. Freedom still should matter. Grown adults should be able to make their own decisions. I support helmet laws for the under 18 crowd, but for grown adults? Too much nanny state for my liking.

One reason people might disagree is that you're pushing the externality of your own safety onto others. An example of an externality: those who don't wear helmets and crash are much more likely to have a brain injury (or death). This means that we all have to pay for your care now. In death (lack of taxes) or in financial damage. And in some cases like safety standards, people will also argue for emotional safety as…

The risk of crashing and getting brain damage is real but small. The risk of not riding a bike because of helmet laws and then getting fat is real and common. One of these issues costs a whole lot more to the public.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#340

Post by gibolt »

guelo wrote: post #273
Uehreka wrote: post #27

I live in Baltimore and these things have been awesome. Over the summer and early fall, I used them a lot for trips that were between 3-15 blocks. They were usually less than half the price of a Lyft, were fun to drive, don't directly use fossil fuels and were usually available (in one app or the other) within a block or two of my house. I used them to meet friends for brunch, to pick up my car from getting worked on…

> don't directly use fossil fuels I feel like this is a bit of misleading marketing since a ton of fossil fuel is used to round them up and distribute them around town every day.

A huge number of chargers (the people) ride the scooters and stack them on the one they are riding.

Even if a vehicle is used, it is nowhere near the fuel consumed by all the scooter trips combined. It collects multiple and is only after several days per scooter.

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