41–50 of 132 posts
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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.
Cars are just too dangerous to have anywhere near people. They should be banned from cities and suburbs. 40,000 people die every year in the US because of cars. Dumbest idea ever.
So what is the VC angle with these super high valuation scooter startups? It doesn't seem very defensible. The barrier to entry isn't very high. And it doesn't seem that customer loyalty would be much of a factor. The most obvious strategy I see is that the VCs think they can pump these companies then dump them on the open markets and cash out before thousands of global, regional, and local competitors flood in and m…
Electric scooters are a fruiting body of the electric car industry (brushless hub motors, batteries etc wouldn't have gotten so developed just for scooters) Maybe the scooter rentals are propping up another of the vc's concerns?
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 live in Paris with an arguably good public transport system in place and Lime scooters were quite popular this summer. This is only anecdotally ofc, but you see a lot of people using them. There are not as many Bird scooters yet though. Where I see the niche is medium distances were the metro is not a fast solution but if scooters are ubiquitously available for these situations, I see value in them. And yeah, Touri…
Because, for fuck’s sake, their manner of innovation was to look at bike shares, and do scooters instead. And this is a fucking retarded idea, up there with the Juicero, and yet wowee, shit tons of cash getting thrown around.
There’s actually no way to predict how retarded success might actually be sometimes, no matter how many times success is also sensible. We like the sensible success stories more, and claim that they are more valid, but that doesn’t dispell the very real existence of completely useless companies that are also successful.
It’s like hating some of your more unbearable co-workers, despite the fact that they actually pull some weight no matter how awful they really are to behold.
On a macro scale, this means sometimes, shitty companies with stupid ideas (scooters that homeless people can grift charger duty on) carry the day.
Fuck me. I hate this shitty future.
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.
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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
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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.
Any cities with outdoor moving sidewalks? I seem to only see those in airports but a giant moving sidewalk would be awesome