100 bikes that no riders own, but instead pay to rent, meanwhile one billionaire makes a fortune
I see this at events and festivals in our town all the time and I think it’s a massive win. Every scooter you see is likely one less car clogging up our streets or taking up a parking spot. Plus, a lot of these riders are out-of-towners bringing business to our local shops and helping the economy. It’s a shame there are so many NIMBYs hating on them when the trade-off is clearly better for the town’s bottom line. I’ll take a sidewalk with a few scooters over a gridlocked street any day. Plus they are super fun to ride.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE CARS?!? WON’T ANYBODY THINK OF THE POOR CARS?!?
In Germany this went reaaaallly awesome. First, some years back we had this with the shit bikes and it turned out to be a burden on all and there are massive bike dumps in China.
Then a while later we allow the same with scooters.
And as usual, some people with shit asshole behavior messing it up for everyone.
The other thing I do not get in my head is using public space for business. If I can’t just do that companies should be forbidden too.
I’m surprised there hasn’t been an initiative to get all the DHL/Amazon/etc. pick-up boxes to all share one station.
I think that’s just the Post Office, with extra steps.
That would mean prioritising the public interest over the profits of large corporations. We don’t do that here. And if you think that better organisation would benefit everybody, including the corporations, you’re a filthy communist.
In theory they get a city license and so could you… In theory.
Agree with your point, but cars are far worse…
Agreed that cars are worse. If they were used primarily in bike lanes or on roads, I might believe they’re displacing cars. As it is, they’re primarily operated on sidewalks, effectively displacing pedestrian traffic and public transportation.
They’re still displacing cars though? Most times I’ve used one, the alternative would have been taking my car, or a ride hailing app. I’m not taking one instead of a leisurely stroll, I’m taking one to get somewhere in a reasonable amount of time. Which walking was never going to accomplish.
Yeah thats so true
I’m always amused when people get enraged by scooters or bikes on the sidewalk but see nothing wrong in giving over the vast majority of public spaces to cars. Maybe your priorities might be ever so slightly askew here, brother/sister/other kind of sibling.
Here’s the thing, sidewalks have a speed limit to ensure the safety of everyone on them. Scooters or bikes can go faster, yet get to share that space. Me being mad at these things on sidewalks is me being mad at the city planers not giving them their own lane. Take it from the cars, give them a portal and make it in another dimension, idgaf, get them to a safe speed or away from people walking at 5kmh.
i agree but its worth it to take a car off the road. but yeah we should have speed limits and also the kids who go the wrong way on these things down one way streets should get fined or something
Thanks for your business. We’ll just leave these externalities here for you to enjoy.
I kinda blame the Police. If I park my personal car, bike, bicycle, whatever, I will receive a ticket.
Let’s just say its not impossible to crack the firmware on many of these.
That kinda looks like a lot of cars not on the road. Sure, they should have designated drop off and pick up locations so you don’t get this mess. However, I think these lime bikes are providing an alternative option to solo drivers.
Unless they’re parked legally I just push them over, away from the sidewalk. And someone else has started as well! They do a decent job of coming to get them and put them somewhere allowed, all in a row. But the app requires you to take geostamped photos so they have proof their riders are just putting them in the middle of the sidewalk and walking away, and they don’t care.
Flipside, they’re hella nice to grab to work if my car is down or if it’s just nice, and you could techically get across my entire city on them (stopping to swap I assume) so there’s a bit of democratization about them, but you’d be dumb to try that.
They should be free if they’re going to be letting them leave tomorrow’s e-waste on our sidewalks. Maybe we could all pay for them together somehow idk
I do believe that’s a 2016-2019 Chevy volt in the first picture.
The free market will solve you
I never really hear people say that the free market will solve everything. Market failures are a thing and a dominant part of welfare economics.
It’s the libertarians and retails investors, who root for the ruthless billionaire-owned businesses they invested in, who say that.
100 people took an e-scooter or e-bike somewhere, and will probably take them back homeward ince the even is over, what’s the problem? Should there be another parking lot instead?
It looks like that during sporting events and an hour after the event is over you won’t find a single bike within a mile of the stadium.
