Like I said.
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You mean like Wall Street or 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?
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I think letting someone else mop up the mess isn’t what happens when they fail, I think it’s their business model.
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Absolutely, I think these scooters are super dangerous and I hope they or someone makes the accident data on them very well published. I’m reasonably athletic and I grew up riding skateboards everywhere and I almost went down the first time I rode one, at speed! But as long as people are fully aware of the risks I’m fine with people using them.
Maybe I just have a higher threshhold for chaos but I see the occasional scooter cluster and it doesn’t bother me at all. If it’s super in the way I or someone can easily move them. The waste they leave when people misuse them is far less obnoxious than, say, dogs, and I’m fine with dogs existing too.
I appreciate them enough that I’ll even tidy them up, but I fully understand that’s not to be expected of everyone, especially when dealing with a for profit company. But the good they serve (moving people around without using cars) far outweighs the bad, to me at least. Especially here in San Francisco where the alternative is mostly to use Uber or Lyft, which is probably fully half the traffic on any street.
I do think there’s lots of room for improvement. For me i think i would rather see more of the bike shares as having bike stands is more common, but definitely less people taking cars is ideal… whatever method they choose i don’t care.
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I live along a busy downtown pedestrian mall and I’m looking out my window at a gaggle of discarded scooters strewn about the sidewalk. I’ve even witnessed riders jump off in while motion and literally throw the thing to the ground and walk away. As usual it comes down to people who just don’t give a crap about others ruining it for everyone else. It’s pretty much a Wild West situation right now.
What’s inexcusable is the scooter companies can enforce this thru their software. They’re already supposed to enforce “no-go” zones via GPS and will alarm or disable if you’re riding in areas you’re not supposed to. There are ways of solving the problems but the scooter companies are not really interested in addressing them.
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disruption
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- Make vague promises.
- Collect VC money.
- Sell failing business for several billion.
- Repeat
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Obviously:
Though when we’re talking about modern tech companies, little things like “profits” and “business models” are secondary to “disruption.”
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Do not buy cheap but fragile equipment. Pay for more durable scooters with a 350lb minimum weight, and capable of handling more adverse environments. Aim for a 6 month mean lifespan (extensible with maintenance) even if it means paying 250% of the cost of current scooters.
There is a clear business model here, but with an expensive fail now making the case for equipment upgrades a necesssity.
They got into the market by buying at a discount the cheap leavings of a failed startup. Now upgrade.
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I mean, the “business model” is “con rich idiots out of their money”. Driving people from place to place was never something that an app could make more cost effective. A Big Store con, on the other hand, is massively cheaper to do via tech than via brick and mortar.
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I would add a “Get X amount of your $ back if you park & lock or leave the scooter in a designated place”. A company would save money by not having to chase these things down if users are given an incentive not to leave them around like trash.
I know some of the bike shares here do that, if you return the bike to a designated/branded bike dock you get some money back.
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Of course that has the perverse effect of people who would have returned the scooter out of social obligation now thinking that it’s okay to not return the scooter because they are essentially “paying” to not return it. The price has to be high enough to detract from this, but not so high that people find it a barrier-to-entry or an unacceptable risk. Income inequality might make it so there is no “right” price.
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Actually, this e-scooter thing is a wonderful advertisement for e-bikes.
You have more control, they are more stable to drive and you can get both better speed and if interested, more exercise.
Why are these things more preferrsble to ebikes? Is it a need to customize bike sixe to the individual?
(Also i want the motorized bits of an escooter for robot projects)
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I see electric skateboards with frequency here, which i don’t know if they’re safer than the scooters but they are easier to store when not in use. Personally though i would be inclined to get an e-bike.
That is not true, regarding an Uber being impossible to make profitable, but you would have to make it so that the user/rider would need to transfer between several cars as part of their trip (like the way you might transfer onto several buses).
This would likely feel less convenient and users would likely reject this option in favour of one long ride in a single vehicle.
350 pounds!? That isn’t a scooter anymore. It’s a prop from the next Mad Max.
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Like this one?
That’s sure been the case for me. I was annoyed by electric bikes before, having never ridden them, and now I thoroughly love them, via the gateway drug of electric scooters.
Not to mention those fat battery packs… 750 watt hours!
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I’m 300lb, and often travel with an additional 30-50lb of equipment.
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