Lime and Bird are growing rapidly • Hacker News Board

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#431

Post by LeonidasXIV » Tue, Dec 04, 2018, 10:53 AM UTC

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 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 many of these cities, I used a Bird to get around. These scooters opened up so much more of these cities for me than I could have seen if I just walked every where.

I wanted to like them when I was visiting from Europe to STL but I couldn't:

- They require a helmet. I don't have a helmet and I'm not gonna buy one for a 5 day trip. Most people do not wear helmets but if police stops me I can hardly point at other people disobeying the same rule. - They require a drivers license. I last drove a car half a decade ago or so so I tend to use my driver's license at home, especially on trips abroad. - Using the scooters on streets in STL feels a bit scary. I commute to work by bike every day but we have cycle lanes and drivers who are used to seeing cyclists everywhere so it is a rather safe environment.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#432

Post by mac01021 » Tue, Dec 04, 2018, 10:56 AM UTC

pandesmos wrote: post #310

jayd16 wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>not sure how I feel about seeing them in piles outside of public schools Kids treat them like shit but what is there to do?

This is the thing that bothers me. They appear to be getting set out in front of my kid’s school (in sets of 4), and it’s the natural inclination for kids to want to run jump and play on them. So now there’s this sort of quandary I have as a parent: do I tell my kids and or other kids to not play on these scooters? And to take care of them? Where should I draw the line? I don’t see them in poor areas of town, so it’s…

If they're damaged too much or too often, then either they'll be taken away, or else the service will become more expensive to offset the cost.

So, ultimately, it will be to the detriment of anyone who wants to use the scooters. If your kids don't know anyone who uses them or even see them getting used ever, it may not be a very compelling argument.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#433

Post by criagsbkbk » Tue, Dec 04, 2018, 11:14 AM UTC

ZoomZoomZoom wrote: post #425

numair wrote: post #60

I have spent a lot of time observing this phenomenon in Venice; here are some of my thoughts. What these scooters have done for SM-Venice is, they’ve gotten people to park farther away and spend less time in cars. Especially the tourists. What does that mean for locals? Well, for one, it means that the nuisance of having to drive slow past people on these things, rather than the nightmare of sitting in standstill tra…

>>They’re completely dorky and I’ll never be caught dead on one Sorry for asking, but are you thirteen?

Personal swipes aren't allowed here. FYI

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#434

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Dec 04, 2018, 11:15 AM UTC

Uehreka wrote: post #313

guelo wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Fair, it’d be worth doing some math on this. Let’s assume a scooter Travels distance T on a full battery (across multiple trips of course) and has efficiency TE based on the efficiency of the (presumably fossil fuel) power plant and that the person picking it up for Charging drives distance C Picking Up PU scooters with a fossil fuel engine that has CE efficiency. Of course, we need to assume that TE and CE are measu…

[deleted]

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#435

Post by ZoomZoomZoom » Tue, Dec 04, 2018, 11:31 AM UTC

criagsbkbk wrote: post #433

ZoomZoomZoom wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>They’re completely dorky and I’ll never be caught dead on one Sorry for asking, but are you thirteen?

Personal swipes aren't allowed here. FYI

This is not a personal swipe, just a sarcastic remark on a tactless and judgemental comment.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#436

Post by billsmithaustin » Tue, Dec 04, 2018, 11:41 AM UTC

“Lime recently indicated their latest scooters have an average lifespan of 4 months.”

I wonder what happens to the scooter after that. Landfill? Recycle?

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#437

Post by jv22222 » Tue, Dec 04, 2018, 11:56 AM UTC

It would be cool if these things helped cities make streets safer for all cyclists and small vehicles.

I can imagine that VC's won't like articles like this and that may have a knock on effect of making cities better in the long term.

https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/09/24/e-scooter-deaths-unde...

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#438

Post by StavrosK » Tue, Dec 04, 2018, 12:05 PM UTC

davelondon wrote: post #366

numair wrote: post #60

I have spent a lot of time observing this phenomenon in Venice; here are some of my thoughts. What these scooters have done for SM-Venice is, they’ve gotten people to park farther away and spend less time in cars. Especially the tourists. What does that mean for locals? Well, for one, it means that the nuisance of having to drive slow past people on these things, rather than the nightmare of sitting in standstill tra…

> I have spent a lot of time observing this phenomenon in Venice For half a second I had this vision of Lime jet-skis piling up and blocking the canals of Venice, Italy.

Oh that's not what he meant? I was a bit surprised that the company had expanded to Italy. Is it Venice LA then, or somewhere else?

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#439

Post by scarejunba » Tue, Dec 04, 2018, 12:38 PM UTC

maxk42 wrote: post #424

scarejunba wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see what's wrong with them taking up parking space. Considering mean occupancy of cars in America, the street parked scooter is doing just as well in serving one individual as a street parked car. In fact, I'd argue we should remove more parking spots and switch them to scooter spots.

In Hollywood if you take up a parking space with a scooter instead of turning it sideways so a car can still fit you are a massive dick. Parking is a very limited resource here.

Which is why you don’t use it for one person’s car instead of five people’s scooters. Enough subsidies for cars.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#440

Post by wmeredith » Tue, Dec 04, 2018, 12:53 PM UTC

pandesmos wrote: post #310

jayd16 wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>not sure how I feel about seeing them in piles outside of public schools Kids treat them like shit but what is there to do?

This is the thing that bothers me. They appear to be getting set out in front of my kid’s school (in sets of 4), and it’s the natural inclination for kids to want to run jump and play on them. So now there’s this sort of quandary I have as a parent: do I tell my kids and or other kids to not play on these scooters? And to take care of them? Where should I draw the line? I don’t see them in poor areas of town, so it’s…

There is no moral quandary about teaching children to respect property that isn’t theirs. If you want them out of your community there are myriad channels for addressing that.