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Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

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Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#461

Post by pecanpie »

StavrosK wrote: post #438
davelondon wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

Yes, it's Venice, Los Angeles. When he says "SM-Venice", he means Santa Monica / Venice.

Incidentally, I was in Venice Beach a few weeks ago, and I too witnessed that the scooters are very popular down there, and becoming enough of a fixture that you hear things shouted on the street like "hey, that's my Lime" when someone breaches etiquette and takes a scooter that someone else has just parked and intends to use again right away.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#462

Post by zjaffee »

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…

So I also had the chance to observe them in Venice, and I don't know if I agree with the premise that they are actually getting people to park further away, people are however, taking less cars between the beach front areas within LA for sure.

At least for me, there was a clear before and after moment, where you suddenly saw far more people on your block in Venice riding around drunk on scooters all the time, where as before, you hardly saw anyone.

This said, I use them all the time, Venice is a bitch to find parking in, and the neighborhood is just spread out enough where you need a vehicle to get around. Before it would've been a huge pain to grab breakfast at Gusta, head into ocean park for some shopping and then head on down to Washington to spend some time near the pier all before noon.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#463

Post by paulddraper »

sonofaplum wrote: post #140
paulddraper wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even so, this is still a win. 1. Scooters use far less energy than larger vehicles. 2. Generating energy from fossil fuels can be done more efficiently at a power plant than in a small engine. 3. When power generation is centralized, it is easier to substitute it for better, more efficient forms in the future.

does this calculus still work if each scooter only lasts 3 months, as is stated in the article?

Maybe. Depends on the usage and alternatives.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#464

Post by e40 »

scarejunba wrote: post #460
e40 wrote: post #456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have had 10+ people whiz past me at 20 MPH, within inches of my body. Had I taken a step to the side they were riding, I would have been hit and been pushed to the ground. Had I hit my head, I could have died. People die from head injuries all the time. In the shower, falling down, etc. Yes, I call this extremely dangerous, because death could result. Is it likely? No. Is it possible? Yes. A few years ago a 20 some…

So if you had the following reference points: crossing the road normally as you do (A), skydiving (B), BASE jumping (C) where we know that A < B < C (empirically), does this fall below A, above C, or between two of {A, B, C}, and if so, which two?

When I cross the road in a crosswalk, I'm in control. I step off the curb when it's clear.

If I don't want the risk for skydiving, I won't do it. I won't, btw.

Base jumping? No thanks.

Walking 1+ hour/day on sidewalks: I've told you I've had 10+ close calls. There is nothing I can do to mitigate this risk.

I see what you're trying to do, but you're coming off a little dickish.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#465

Post by CyberDildonics »

aantix wrote: post #284
0xADEADBEE wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I must be in a bit of a minority but my main objection to these would be the installation of an app to use them - I am perhaps too privacy-conscious and admit I haven't attempted the signup process but even with a throwaway email address, I'm not comfortable installing it on a device I take with me when I leave the house; I even Uber via the web interface and would probably stop using the service if they hamstrung th…

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

If something can be done through a web page, why is it being done through an app in the first place? Most of the time it is so that updates can be pushed and the app can be doing more than it really needs to do to deliver the service.

For things like this, you just need to sign up and put in a little bit of info, but now you have to install and app that may or may not be hugely bloated, require permissions you it doesn't need, push updates frequently, etc.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#466

Post by lazyasciiart »

anonytrary wrote: post #426
lazyasciiart wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why you think anyone would do this, but I am also not sure that it would be any more legal to run a scooter rental hub at most homes than it is to put a pile of scooters on the sidewalk.

Sorry, why do you think it's a rental hub? It's not a rental hub, you're simply giving Bird riders consent to use your property to drop their scooters off (as opposed to them dropping their scooters off on a random person's property, which bypasses consent and is far worse). All of the rental happens between Bird and the rider, you're just giving people permission to leave scooters on your lawn. It's an opt-in rather…

It is a hub for people to collect rental bikes. You are giving people permission to use your private property only if they have a specific commercial relationship with a business that you also have a specific commercial relationship to, which has a lot of differences to residential use. I'm not an expert, but I'd be pretty stunned if e.g a standard home insurance policy was willing to cover you under those circumstances.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#467

Post by stallmanite »

Lubnah wrote: post #418
stef25 wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Define irresponsibly. Your plaintext passwords, ID scans and physical address getting leaked is one thing. Using your basic demographic data for advertising is something else. An obvious solution is just to use bogus data: name, email, dob, address, burner phone. Only thing you can't fake is your credit card but I'm sure a lot of companies do actually accept payments where the name of the card differs from the name o…

Disposable gift cards can be loaded with up to $500, and cost about $5. If you buy your cards in cash, they're about as private as the security cameras are in whichever convenience store you pay for them in. Based on what we know about Target's shopper surveillance and behavioral identification efforts being capable of targeting pregnant women with pregnancy products, who didn't even know they were pregnant yet, them…

Plenty of services reject prepaid cards though which is infuriating.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#468

Post by samstave »

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…

Just curious, what was your budget for that road trip?

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#469

Post by omegaworks »

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…

>These scooters (despite their benefit) are ultimately taking money out of the community (if they’re profitable) and they’re budgeting for loss and damage, so why not let the kids play on them and damage them?

Any business is predicated on a win-win proposition. Lime / Bird provides the capital, maintenance and network that maintains the scooters, and the people that use them pay the cost of their usage. The money they "take out of the community" is likely outweighed by the positive externalities brought to the community:

1. Traffic is lessened.

2. Jobs are provided to community members to pick them up and charge them.

3. Businesses make more money / pay more sales taxes from higher foot traffic.

4. Community members have a pleasant scooting experience readily available to them on demand.

Of course, scooters also have negative externalities:

1. They are not useful for people with disabilities, and can actively prevent people with disabilities from participating in public spaces when people park the scooters like assholes.

2. People will hurt themselves using the scooters.

3. Piles of dead scooters are aesthetically unappealing.

But these must be weighed against the benefits.

Re: Lime and Bird are growing rapidly

#470

Post by MBlume »

ams6110 wrote: post #370
beerlord wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus transporting about 80kg of human, scooter and baggage is much less weight than human, car and baggage. It would be interesting to calculate the MPG of these, including the overnight recharging and repositioning done inside a van.

What is the injury rate, compared to cars?

Scooters cause far fewer injuries than cars do
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