Have app scooters invaded your city?

[Hygro]

Have those electric app controlled scooters by Bird, Lime, or otherwise inundated your area? Have you used them? How do you feel?

 

[Narz]

I feel... it's hard to put into words, I think I'm improving so hesitantly positive. How do you feel?

Regarding scooters, they seem awesome and fun to me. I was tempted to buy one but then had to pay my lawyer $3k instead.

I'm all for fewer cars & more non-cars on the streets! My city is pretty hip so hopefully this'll be a thing soon here.

 

[Hygro]

lmfao

 

[Silurian]

I assume that this is what you are talking about!

https://www.vox.com/2018/8/27/17676670/electric-scooter-rental-bird-lime-skip-spin-cities

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

I have yet to see one here and assume they won't arrive until like 2030 when the rest of the country has moved on to something else

 

[Synobun]

Haven't seen them, don't want to see them. Everyone here already drives stuff they shouldn't on the sidewalks. Don't need to add a cabal of scooter-bros to the list.

 

[Ryika]

I'm not a privileged rich kid and I don't live in a privileged rich kid area, so no.

 

[Farm Boy]

You'll get bicycles left in the middle of the street first, then, from what I understand.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Obama!

 

[Kaitzilla]

Have those electric app controlled scooters by Bird, Lime, or otherwise inundated your area? Have you used them? How do you feel?

I think they are infiltrating most large cities now yes.
Much more popular than Segways ever were.

No opinion from me yet.
The Lewis Black video on comedy central about the electric scooter craze is hilarious , but it has 3 curse words and 4 bleeps so I can't link it here.
I can link the bird graveyard though.
https://www.instagram.com/birdgraveyard/?hl=en


The economics are fascinating.
$1 to unlock the scooter, and $0.15 per minute ($9 per hour) and you can pick them up anywhere and leave them anywhere make them convenient.
Capped at 15mph (some models can go faster) and up to 200 pounds of weight they have almost too much speed for the sidewalk.

The people who find the scooters with a gps app and charge them overnight are part of the gig economy now.
$100 a night if you get lucky

https://www.theatlantic.com/technol...tric-scooters-is-a-cutthroat-business/560747/

“Charging scooters for Bird is like Pokémon Go, but when you get paid for finding Pokémon,” says Nick Abouzeid, a 21-year-old charger in San Francisco. Several nights a week after work, he and his girlfriend go on walks around the city, collecting scooters and bringing them back to his apartment building to charge in the basement.

“It’s really fun to grab a few scooters, charge them, and in the end it pays for a fancy dinner,” Abouzeid says. “It’s like a game and I would do it even if the prices were halved, which they probably will be.”

Like Pokémon Go, when you enter “charger mode” the Bird app displays a real-time map of Birds across your area that require charging. The reward for capturing and charging these Birds can range from $5 to $20 depending on how difficult the Bird is to locate—and some can be really hard to find. Bird chargers have described finding Birds in and under trash cans, down the side of a canyon, hidden in bushes, or tossed sideways on the side of the street.

“Finding the really hard ones is so awesome,” says Lucas, a young teenage Bird charger in L.A. who didn’t want his last name or his age listed since he technically hunts under his parents’ account. “It’s become a big trend at my high school. People are like, ‘Oh are you gonna charge tonight?’ I have friends send me Snapchats like, ‘I just got 18 in one night!’ or, ‘Look where I found this one.’ There’s definitely a sense of achievement in picking a lot of them up.”

The dark side of scooter charging wasn't far behind.
Scooters placed at the end of dark alleys and naive kids getting ganked.
Fights over scooters where 4 people show up.
People holding scooters hostage to drive the price up.

A good way for high school and college kids to make extra money now that newspapers are dead.
Just have to stay safe.

Their range varies, but 15 to 35 miles depending on how much speed you want and how much weight you want to handle.
Here's a decent list if anyone wants to buy one.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/best-electric-scooters/

 

[Zkribbler]

Obama!

 

[yung.carl.jung]

I mean if it was up to me then cars (really almost all motorized vehicles) should be banned inna city excluding only things like electric wheelchairs

I also want to spit in all those people's faces who drive a ****** Range Rover or BMW or Porsche SUV, but never use it for anything but shopping in a big city with perfect public transport access everywhere. If you're reading this, you're scum and I wouldn't even shake your hands if I was wearing gloves.

 

[Disgustipated]

I'm not sure LOL. I don't go to the tourist areas of my city. Which may seem strange for someone who doesn't live here. But I haven't been the strip in over a decade.

 

[Ryika]

I mean if it was up to me then cars (really almost all motorized vehicles) should be banned inna city excluding only things like electric wheelchairs

I also want to spit in all those people's faces who drive a ****** Range Rover or BMW or Porsche SUV, but never use it for anything but shopping in a big city with perfect public transport access everywhere. If you're reading this, you're scum and I wouldn't even shake your hands if I was wearing gloves.

I hope you don't ever buy stuff overseas.

 

[Synobun]

I also want to spit in all those people's faces who drive a ****** Range Rover or BMW or Porsche SUV, but never use it for anything but shopping in a big city with perfect public transport access everywhere. If you're reading this, you're scum and I wouldn't even shake your hands if I was wearing gloves.

Isn't shopping one of the reasons why a car in a city would be a good thing to have? You aren't going to be lugging a TV on public transit, or six+ bags of groceries.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

You aren't going to be lugging a TV on public transit, or six+ bags of groceries.

I did. And a used couch table. and a rocking chair. and probably a matress, I forgot. it wasn't even a train dude, it was a really tight bus. people looked at me weird, can't blame em.

I hope you don't ever buy stuff overseas.

of course I do. whenever I'm there.

Spoiler :

no, really you're right, I shouldn't, but my argument wasn't so much about the environment but rather about cities just being godawful for people like me who actually like to.. walk. they're an eyesore, they negatively impact your direct environment with pollution and noise pollution, and they're almost exclusively owned by *******s. **** SUVs in the city

 

[Synobun]

I did. And a used couch table. and a rocking chair. and probably a matress, I forgot. it wasn't even a train dude, it was a really tight bus. people looked at me weird, can't blame em.

They wouldn't even let you on the bus here if you tried doing that.

 

[Silurian]

I did. And a used couch table. and a rocking chair. and probably a matress, I forgot. it wasn't even a train dude, it was a really tight bus.

I brought a table home from work once by bus; well three.
One into the city centre, then another to my town, then another to near where I live.
Also brought an office chair home from the same place and I am sat in it now.
It was quite funny sat in the chair at the bus stop.

 

[Lexicus]

Several riders of those scooters have died gruesomely in the last couple of weeks by getting hit by cars

 

[Zelig]

Can you get scooters with studded tires or chains? I don't see how they'd be functional in the winter otherwise.