How about a beer:
Or a bar:
(the bar is on a street called Howell Ave, hence “Thirst On Howell III”)
Agreed that car users tend to develop a high degree of obliviousness about the inconveniences cars pose for non-car-users (speaking as a lifelong pedestrian and infrequent car user).
To be fair, though, it’s true that at this point most municipalities that have introduced e-scooters haven’t done a great job of designating spaces for them, either while in use or while parked. And they haven’t (yet?) achieved any noticeable reduction in car use sufficient to free up existing space.
So the overall impact for most non-scooter-users is that the scooters are just further reducing the limited available space and getting in people’s way.
Disclaimer: I spent several weeks recently in a city with a pretty well-run e-scooter program, and tried out the system a few times (had never ridden a scooter before). It’s a handy option for pedestrians, but I sympathize with people who find the scooters a bit alarming. I found them a bit alarming myself, especially when I was riding one! No actual accidents, but that was as least as much good luck as good judgement.
On the other hand, if we had more car-free urban areas with more versatile public transit options, we could accommodate a lot more individual transport modes without crowding people up so much. Ride your e-scooter, or bicycle or motorcycle or e-bike or tricycle or unicyle or skateboard or traffic-trained donkey or whatever, in the street and park it at the curb; plenty of room for everybody.
If we didn’t have so many individuals taking it for granted that they need a vehicle > 100 cubic feet in volume just to transport their < 3 cubic feet individual human bodies over short distances, trying to accommodate less wasteful modes of transport wouldn’t be such a chore.
Where would these companies (already financially challenged) find the money to hire the staff that would be needed to review all these texted photos? Or the staff to monitor GPS locators? Plus collecting a deposit, and then refunding it a few hours later – both of those electronic transactions have finance charges – who pays them?
Actually making this work has various complications.
I have zero idea as to the economic soundness of these companies. But just because doing things responsibly costs money does not impress me as a sufficient excuse to impose a burden on the general public and non-customers.
I’m generally not too sympathetic towards for-profit entities who create some externality but then claim it would not be economically feasible for them to avoid doing so. If you cannot afford to do things responsibly, then maybe you need to come back when your business model covers that.
I opened a case through our city’s 311 app yesterday about noon. Within an hour the case was closed, without explanation. The scooter is still there. According to the advice I got, they have another day and a half to get it gone. Someone picked it up overnight, I suspect it was the garbage collectors, and left it leaning against my property.
I guess this could have gone in the thread about things that infuriate you beyond their actual importance. It’s not just that the scooter companies don’t have any way to deal with this situation on a routine basis, it’s the complete disregard from a neighbor who would park the thing in front of my property instead of their own. It’s just a crappy thing to do.
To quote what I said earlier:
By that I meant, if your business inconveniences the general public, especially if it does so because you can’t afford to make sure it doesn’t, you shouldn’t be in business. People shouldn’t be tripping over scooters or finding them on their property because the scooter company can’t afford to pick them up.
It’s like a tire store that dumps used tires in alleys so they don’t have to pay to have them hauled away. If you can’t afford to have them hauled away, that really shouldn’t be anyone else’s problem.
And to clarify this, I didn’t intend to be quite so mean spirited about driving someone out of business, I meant that this would provide an incentive to deal with the problem.
Or what Dinsdale said.
AI would handle this; no people necessary
This is probably already handled in their business model. Just like the gas station doesn’t know your final bill when you pull up to the pump & tap/insert your card, they don’t know your exact charge when you rent/check one out as (at least some of them charge per time unit - first ½ hour is $5 & then $1 for every additional ½ hour). They may determine that their average rental time is 33 mins; therefore they default their CC authorization to $6 but may only charge you $5 if you rent it for 15 mins but charge me $7 because I have it for 64 mins. They could include a deposit up front so they authorization is for $36 but rescind the vast majority of them when they post the actual charge.
* all numbers are made up examples; I have no idea what they actually cost as they don’t have them near me & I’ve therefore, never used one.
Ha, I never heard that one! When I was an Eastsider, Humboldt and Holton were our H streets and Wolski’s the landmark bar* but I’m jealous of your local puns. And the sign is primo, the old timey bubbler in silhouette swoon i can practically taste the rusty brass plumbing fixtures!
Indulging in some college reminiscing, of course everyone has to go to Wolski’s for a sticker shortly after they get to town and I wasn’t hanging in bars much at the time but wasn’t a fan anyway. But we DID go to *Landmark Lanes a lot on Sundays for a neat neighborhood third place for socializing. It isn’t a bar but they have a bar. And Thai Joe’s.
The current owner(s) of Wolski’s are friends but, oddly enough, I’ve only drank there a handful of times over the years. The Bubbler, if you didn’t figure it out is in Bay View on Howell, near Oklahoma.
That’s probably because half their inventory is scattered hither and yon.
They work great in societies like Japan where the people are disciplined and responsible. This is America.
A challenge to drag. They are surprising heavy and the wheels lock up when not in use. Recently, when I attempted to move one in front of my store, an extremely loud alarm sounded startling the crap out of me. (That had never happened before when I have moved them).
A few weeks ago, I watched a woman spend a good 5 minutes trying to drag one across a busy street, only to leave it on the opposite corner (my property) when she realized she couldn’t use it due to a geofence issue.
Is that inherent in the technology? Or possibly an anti-theft measure?
Batteries and motors are heavy, but the wheel being locked up is on purpose. Otherwise they’d have no way of preventing people from using them like non-electric scooters for free. It probably also helps keep them from moving around if they’re not parked on a totally flat surface.