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

Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

futureengine.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

381–390 of 488 posts

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#381

Post by randyrand »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #331
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%.

The lifecycle will increase dramatically. Just a few parts need to be beefier. The motor and battery can last a long time.

Its 12 cents to charge, and I imagine there will be city infrastructure added to accommodate charging on the streets. Pay someone a dollar to plug it in to the nearest streetlamp at the end of their ride.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#382

Post by NamTaf »

gruez wrote: post #251
bradlys wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>This means that we all have to pay for your care now I'm not convinced. By that logic, we should also ban unhealthy foods, limit how many calories each person can eat, and mandate them to exercise for n hours per week. I'm sure that some of those will have a higher ROI than putting on helmets. >In death (lack of taxes) so we should ban emigration then? it has the exact same effects from a tax perspective.

Why are you not convinced? That's precisely the logic used by a sugar tax, and is the same logic used in tobacco taxes.

In countries where there's public healthcare, the burden of it on the public purse is a very real consideration where trade-offs must be made in varying ways. One of these ways is to tax things that contribute to higher loads on the spending of those public policies. Australia's tobacco laws are a key example of this.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#383

Post by tuxxy »

spookthesunset wrote: post #319
aantix wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it exhausting to live like that? Will convenience ever win out for you? This is a serious question.

> Isn't it exhausting to live like that? I always wonder why these kind of folks even bother to visit sites like this at all? Isn't this a tech focused site? Why are you here if you hate advancements in technology so much? It reminds me of all the bitter old curmudgeons on Slashdot back in the day. Every post about advancements in HDD storage or more memory had at least a few highly voted comments droning on about th…

> old grumps

I'm 22 and privacy-conscious. I also love tech, but I really enjoy my personal privacy and knowing that I'm not being surveiled all the time. I am also a FSF supporter and try to run libre code wherever possible.

Convince me: why should I give up my privacy to use products that will inevitably treat my data irresponsibly?

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#384

Post by NamTaf »

i_feel_great wrote: post #157
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…

Lime has been in Brisbane for a month now, and they are a menace to pedestrians. Whats more, it does not look like it is alleviating the traffic problems whatsoever. I saw one pulled out of the Brisbane River the other day too.

I haven't had too much issue with them as a pedestrian, though I'm baffled as to why they're forbidden from using bike lanes on roads and are therefore forced to use the footpaths. They travel with the same sort of speed as a bike, and the user wears a helmet. Surely the risks are pretty equivalent.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#385

Post by NamTaf »

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…

As others have said, we have them in Brisbane.

Amusingly, they're forbidden from using all roadways including the green bicycle paths on the sides of roads. They must be ridden on the footpath, or on dedicated bikeways that aren't on roads. I don't understand why this is the case.

The helmet thing is currently tackled by having a helmet on each scooter. I haven't seen any go missing yet but I've also not ridden one myself, though I both live and work inside the proximity for using them.

People I've talked to who've used them have found them fun and convenient. Friends have used them to get to work faster than walking when running late. Others have gone out on the weekend to just sight-see and enjoy the weather, which I think is a positive change vs. sitting inside. I think they're a net positive, but there's some downsides that I think can be addressed.

edit: For additional context, we have a bike share system in Brisbane too (called CityCycle) which is tied to our transit card system. I see it getting some use, but it seems like the scooters are far more popular (at least right now). With our CityCycle system, you pay a ongoing membership fee ($5/mo) plus usage fees (after the first 30 minutes), though there's also a day pass ($2/day) rather than ongoing membership. This makes it a bit harder to start using or sporadically use compared to the scooters. Additionally, you have to return them to dedicated rack locations rather than just park them anywhere. Lastly, they're somehow more dorky than a lime-green scooter, given that they have bright yellow plastic and ads on them.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#387

Post by the_clarence »

lingzb wrote: post #153
xenihn wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being in an accident involving one owned by Bird/Lime/Uber seems like a legal/insurance nightmare, whether you're a pedestrian, rider, or driver.

Yes, but there's the same risk with conventional bikes on streets today. And cities like San Francisco agree - they are making it legal for adults to ride electric scooters _without_ helmets so that it matches regulation around bicycle helmets: https://la.curbed.com/2018/9/21/17884220/bird-lime-scooters-...

You still need a freaking driver license. They are completely pro-cars

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#388

Post by the_clarence »

scelerat wrote: post #105

In West Oakland I see many people using the Ford Bikes, but yet even more people using the Lime scooters. Kids, adults, techies, non-techies. I think they look kind of dorky, and some end up on the sidewalk and dumped in Lake Merritt. On the other hand, it appears that people are using these scooters a lot, possibly instead of driving. That seems like a positive outcome to me.

I don’t understand why people say that they look dorky. Didn’t you have this scooter trend like 20 years ago in the US? We sure had that in Europe.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#389

Post by the_clarence »

lbacaj wrote: post #201

Facts are facts but to me this always seemed like the dumbest idea. I thought it was a dumb idea before the City Bike program was introduced here in NYC then I thought so many people would get hurt with the way Cabbies drive out here. Fast forward a few years and the program is a huge success here in NYC, there was some accidents but no where near what I thought there would be. People obviously love Biking and I was…

It’s hard to grasp for older generations because everyone had to drive. But less and less people have a driver license nowadays in large cities.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#390

Post by the_clarence »

analogmemory wrote: post #342

As a cyclist, I'm hopeful that these bike/scooter/wheel-shares programs will force governments to examine their plans for keeping people safe. More low-speed travel lanes for bikes, scooters, one-wheels, hoverboards, etc. Keep the sidewalks for walking and wheelchairs. Otherwise we are sure to end up like China in these photos: https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/03/bike-share-oversup...

Less cars! These huge roads need to be shared to other modes of transportation.
Post reply on HN