San Francisco rejects permit application for Bird and Lime scooters

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Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/31/san-francisco-rejects-permit-a.html

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They are nice in idea but suck totally in execution. Stupid Limebikes sitting on residential streets for weeks in Seattle.

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I wish they would have rejected them in DC. They are left all over place. In the middle of sidewalks, alleys, doorways. Smaller than bikes and harder to see you can trip over them easily on a crowded street corner.

That being said, they do look like fun.

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Huzzah!!!

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Good; they should have sought permits before flooding the bay area streets with the damn things…

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Was there even a permit to get when they came out? It seems more like Bird scooters move in, people are annoyed by them and petition the city council, city council writes up rules and a permitting process then gets mad that the Bird scooters do not have the permit.

I’m impressed that there are already at least 4 different companies competing in this market space. I wonder which ones are going to survive long term.

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Isn’t that kind of the point of these things? They’re littered everywhere so if you need one you just ask your phone and it tells you that one is stuffed in an alley half a block away.

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You said it.

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Having solved this in the previous century for a naughty Web 1.0 company regarding a nearly identical faux pas in SF, the plan for Bird and Lime will be to find the most expensive lobbyist in town and cough up the $20 grand it will take.

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Obligatory:

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These things are dangerous. People pick them up and hop on and aren’t wearing helmets. Some teen is going to get killed.

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Bird and Lime had scooters out before SF had any kind of process for permits. Nothing illegal was done and the City has nobody to blame but itself.

What is probably illegal is punitive measures against Bird and Lime without a trial. As the City trying to punish these companies when they have committed no crime or infraction and have had no trial to defend themselves is a serious Constitutional faux pas.

That said, I hate these scooters and the people who ride them. But just because I don’t like something means I ought to tolerate unfair and potentially illegal activity from the government.

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Schadenfreude!

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I know they have something like these, if not these exactly, in Kansas City as well. Apparently they have a tendency to get parked such as to block off handicapped access as well.

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How is it not littering to leave your stuff all over the city? This confuses me. People leave them in the middle of the sidewalk. What law would prevent me from putting them in the dumpster?

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THIS!

My brother uses a wheelchair, and after a lifetime fighting the local government to get curbcuts and universal access built out through the city, he’s back where he started - backtracking half a block (at 2 miles an hour) to the nearest unblocked driveway, and riding his wheelchair in the street because some asshole left a scooter in the middle of the sidewalk.

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I saw a young person (maybe 13) riding one against traffic in Oakland yesterday… at rush hour.

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They did the same thing in Salt Lake. Deployed them without permits. The city thought it was a good idea and decided to work with them.

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So you’re saying that it’s the city’s fault for not having a permitting process in place for a business model that did not yet exist?

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