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Bird CEO on scooter startup copycats, unit economics, safety and seasonality

techcrunch.com

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Re: Bird CEO on scooter startup copycats, unit economics, safety and seasonality

#91

Post by baby »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #47
megy wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't agree, London and Paris really took to their bike share systems. This will appeal to even more people.

The Paris bike share system became completely dysfunctional last year when they changed the contractor. It's a huge embarrassment for the city, because it had worked well before. I hope they fix it.

Oh boy, the Velov' of Lyon (which I believe were the very first iteration of these bike share systems) are completely broken since they changed them. Now you can't get one from a station without the app, and the app doesn't work for most people. It's a shit show.

Re: Bird CEO on scooter startup copycats, unit economics, safety and seasonality

#92

Post by baby »

W-Stool wrote: post #54

Here in Reno we have Lime bikes (the scooters were withdrawn after being deployed without city permission) and they are almost like litter - they are laying around all over the city but I almost never see anyone riding one. I'm all for bikes and bicycling but the fact that they have no designated docking stations means people leave them everywhere and to this old fart it is borderline blight.

oh so the space cars take to park and to ride is not an inconvenience? You're funny.

Re: Bird CEO on scooter startup copycats, unit economics, safety and seasonality

#93

Post by baby »

ardy42 wrote: post #31
elcomet wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 make cities bad living habitat. This is well documented and you can compare any American city center with an European city center to understand that.

Re: Bird CEO on scooter startup copycats, unit economics, safety and seasonality

#94

Post by GhostVII »

shard972 wrote: post #26
baroffoos wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can ride a bike much faster with no license.

Well it's a given bike riders should be licensed and plated. It's insane that in many places bike riders using the public roads don't require 3rd party insurance.

Maybe we should also require people going skateboarding to be licensed. Or licence people who are running too quickly - who knows, they could accidentally knock someone over. Better ensure they get liability insurance.

Re: Bird CEO on scooter startup copycats, unit economics, safety and seasonality

#95

Post by GhostVII »

BubRoss wrote: post #84
nradov wrote: post #20

Can we please get parked scooters off the sidewalk where they present a safety hazard to visually and mobility impaired people?

Wouldn't benches, trees and just about everything else be a hazard to those people too?

Benches and trees generally aren't in the middle of sidewalks.

Re: Bird CEO on scooter startup copycats, unit economics, safety and seasonality

#96

Post by yread »

keerthiko wrote: post #3

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 wish you were right, but there are people with deep pockets who believe otherwise:

https://www.eu-startups.com/2018/12/dott-raises-funding/

Amsterdam-based e-scooter startup dott raises €20 million to expand across European cities

Re: Bird CEO on scooter startup copycats, unit economics, safety and seasonality

#97

Post by keerthiko »

malandrew wrote: post #86
baby wrote: post #13

Meanwhile in San Francisco we are stuck with two unknown companies, a very low amount of scooters, no scooters in the evening (after 9pm I think?), and you can't ride one if you don't have a driver license. For a tech-pole, it is quite a backward city.

You need a driver's license? Why?

From the article:

> On safety: In the year or so that scooters hit the mainstream in the U.S., there were casualties. Moreover, many — kids included — realized just how easy it is to get away with scootering sans helmet, while others rode throughout the night. Bird, to keep children off scooters, at least, requires customers to provide a driver’s license when they sign up. Given the number of issues that have arisen as scooters become increasingly popular, improved safety measures are bound to be in the news in the year ahead.

Apparently it's for a reason colinear to needing licenses to drive cars, ie, to limit irresponsible scooterers and minors who tend to disregard rules and be the most brash riders.

It just so happens it's also conveniently a great way to keep poor people and homeless people from making use of this even if they had the money for a ride, but then again maybe that's for their own good.

Re: Bird CEO on scooter startup copycats, unit economics, safety and seasonality

#100

Post by wink »

idoco wrote: post #98

My analysis of Bird's unit economics in Tel Aviv: https://twitter.com/ido_co/status/1080883756184023041

> A Bird costs ₪5 to unlock and ₪0.5 per minute of use ($1.34 and $0.13).

Wow, I find that pretty expensive.

I don't have scooter numbers for comparison and no idea aboul general cost of living in TLV, but in Munich I pay

- 1 EUR for 30min of rental bike ( negligible yearly cost of 3 EUR/year)

- 2.80 EUR for public transport (1.40 for short trips)

So yeah, the scooter is electric, but are people really using them for > 10minute rides?

Apparently they do.

> The average ride duration was 15.5 minutes.

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