Bird Scooters in your city

[ptourkin]

Originally Posted by jtakeda

I haven’t read the book. But I’d also wager to say to you didn’t see the bird scooters this spring first hand.

Also there is almost no free parking here and meter parking can cost up to $8/ hour

What's the wager?
This is my neighborhood right now.

[jtakeda]

That’s not that many....

It’s more like if that entire screen was a 8 blocks x 8 blocks

[FlashUNC]

Originally Posted by cmg

the issue with parking/dumping could be solved by converting them to a docking station/racks and having a crew pick them up the loose undocked ones every night. that and donating more of their revenue to city coffers, always a solution. looks like a real problem.... not enough room to walk around.

So wait, you mean what the city bike program already does. Genius! Its almost like they're duplicative and a totally needless form of transit.

[cmg]

Originally Posted by FlashUNC

So wait, you mean what the city bike program already does. Genius! Its almost like they're duplicative and a totally needless form of transit.

right now the only thing about the scooters that's annoying city officials is that they're not getting a bigger piece of the financial pie. not any more useless than the local city bus system designed to be ineffective and time consuming. city was designed around automobile use and anything threatens single passenger use will be regulated out of existence.

[Tony T]

New England Cities Scramble to Regulate Electric Scooters
by The Associated Press, nytimes.com
July 25, 2018 04:54 PM
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — One New England city is ordering a California company's electric stand-up scooters off its streets and another is scrambling to craft new scooter rules since the rental vehicles began appearing last week with no warning.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, sent a letter to Los Angeles-based startup Bird Rides Inc. on Tuesday, warning that it's illegal to operate its rental scooter business in the city without prior authorization. The college town home to Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology joined cities including Miami, Denver and Milwaukee as the latest battleground between municipal governments and a handful of fast-growing companies in a fierce competition to expand rental scooter and bicycle services around the country.

The dockless scooters appeared before dawn last Friday parked on sidewalks in Cambridge, in neighboring Somerville and in Providence, Rhode Island. All three have otherwise embraced trendy new modes of transportation such as bicycle-share networks or rentable electric-assisted pedal bikes, but Bird's unorthodox approach has grated on city leaders.

A day later, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said that the scooters would be sent to the tow yard if they arrived in his city without permission.

The company's smartphone app for finding and booking the scooters now shades Boston red, labeling it a "no ride or park zone," but the scooters are still being placed each morning in Cambridge, Somerville and Providence after overnight charging.

Cambridge Vice Mayor Jan Devereux said Bird seems to use stealth launches and then lets city officials scramble for how they want to permit and regulate the scooters.

"It certainly got them a seat at the table," Devereux said. "How they proceed from there is a question of what kind of attitude they bring to that table."

Bird said in a statement on Wednesday that "the people of Cambridge have enthusiastically adopted our affordable, environmentally friendly transportation option." It said it looks forward to meeting with city officials.

The company hasn't said how many scooters it has in each city. It has told some contract employees that it plans to uproot the scooters when the weather gets colder and migrate them to warmer climates for the winter.

Devereux, a bicyclist and public transit advocate, said most Cambridge residents are supportive of transportation alternatives that get people out of cars. At the same time, she said, "we want to have some measure of control" so the scooters don't become a safety hazard or chaotic nuisance.

Cambridge City Manager Louis DePasquale, in his Tuesday letter to Bird, said he would meet with company officials on Monday "to assess whether your business may safely operate in the city, and under what conditions."

As of now, he said, the scooters aren't allowed.

"The city will not permit Bird's electric scooters to be parked and used on city-owned streets, sidewalks and other public property without all required authorizations and permissions having first been obtained," he wrote.

Somerville also said this week its officials will meet with Bird but there "is no contract, license or agreement in place to allow them to operate" at this time.

Providence officials said they're consulting with police and other city officials to craft new rules.

"We're working on a policy that fits the city," said Victor Morente, a spokesman for Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza.

Morente declined to say what that policy might look like.

[texbike]

My issue with the entire Bird model is from a cybersecurity/data protection perspective. One, you must download their app - and we all know how perfectly secure apps are and that they're NEVER abused (ie Uber privacy issues). Two, you're required to scan both sides of your credit card AND both sides of your Drivers License. Given the large scale data breaches that we've seen in the last couple of years, I'm hesitant to participate in programs with those requirements. I told my kids that I would prefer to just buy them a scooter than sign up for the Bird program.

Texbike

[cmg]

don't worry the free market will balance it out. the scooters are being dismantled by thieves looking to sell the batteries. want to build your own power wall? wait 6 weeks and someone will download a how to video on Youtube. eventually they'll have to be docked just to track there whereabouts. once the scooters cut into the local poor funded, poorly manged public transportation ridership the city will notice and crack down to take a slice of the missing revenue.

[gdw]

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/l...tmlstory.html#

[bicycletricycle]

I don't like them but I am not sure exactly why.

[MaraudingWalrus]

Originally Posted by bicycletricycle

I don't like them but I am not sure exactly why.

A brief summary of everything ever written on thepaceline.

[bicycletricycle]

Originally Posted by MaraudingWalrus

A brief summary of everything ever written on thepaceline.

Ha!

[Dad2TnR]

We have tons in downtown Charlotte now. They've all but pushed the dockless bikes out of town, which is fine by me. I see lots of banker-types scooting around in suits and ties throughout the day. I agree that they're a nuisance because users can't be relied upon to stage them in areas out of the way, but they're less of a nuisance than the bikes.

[DukeHorn]

[QUOTE=colbyh;2394884

It's also really funny to me that the responses to scooters here are almost exactly the same as everyone's complaints about cyclists on the sidewalk.[/QUOTE]

Fixed this for you.

What's the liability insurance on these scooters? In the past month In Oakland just during my commute to and from BART, I've seen hit pedestrians, scooters traveling on the wrong side of the road in the bike lane, wheelies, high school kids (or maybe college) racing scooters, u-turns in the middle of the street near oncoming traffic, etc. Darwinism at work??

[Tony T]

NYT: Opinion By The Editorial Board - Electric Scooters in New York City? They Just Might Work
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/18/o...ol-left-region

[ptourkin]

After a hot day of climbing yesterday, I didn't feel like riding anymore and took a Bird 2.1 miles for burrito and beers and then 2.1 miles back. Anything that equals less miles in a car is a good thing to me.