Lime Bike battery fire

[efMX Trials Electric Freeride]

if they were an actual significant public problem then politicians can't just sweep it under the rug because they can then be unelected.. ppl likely see more benefit than detriment from these alternative transportation devices and industries therefore they are allowed to operate, within the boundaries of local laws and general public acceptance..

[donn]

There's a pretty fair constituency for them here, I think, so it isn't just down to city hall to twist their arms hard enough to clean it up. The city has to make at least a show of bending over for Lime et al., so they can cultivate the young people vote (not that these young people really vote very much, but they're gullible enough that it's worth it, and also the rental companies have an in with the very politically active bicycle lobby.) But they also have plenty of voters who are irritated by them, to be sure. Lately I believe they've set out to stripe off parking lots for the rental bicycles.

Foot scooter rentals aren't allowed yet, but there's a project to look at it. ("Foot scooter" is an OK name, that has some legal status in my state - RCW 46.04.336 defines "motorized foot scooter." "E-roller" is fairly clear too. But you know what "scooter" means - in fact you should be able to think of half a dozen things that could be equipped with electric motors. It's a terrible name, the kind of ambiguous word that just makes us all stupid whether we're reading it or writing it.)

[E-HP]

There's a pretty fair constituency for them here, I think, so it isn't just down to city hall to twist their arms hard enough to clean it up. The city has to make at least a show of bending over for Lime et al., so they can cultivate the young people vote (not that these young people really vote very much, but they're gullible enough that it's worth it, and also the rental companies have an in with the very politically active bicycle lobby.) But they also have plenty of voters who are irritated by them, to be sure. Lately I believe they've set out to stripe off parking lots for the rental bicycles.

Foot scooter rentals aren't allowed yet, but there's a project to look at it. ("Foot scooter" is an OK name, that has some legal status in my state - RCW 46.04.336 defines "motorized foot scooter." "E-roller" is fairly clear too. But you know what "scooter" means - in fact you should be able to think of half a dozen things that could be equipped with electric motors. It's a terrible name, the kind of ambiguous word that just makes us all stupid whether we're reading it or writing it.)

As it stands, it's really the users that cause the problems. Beside not knowing how to operate them properly (they target the tourist cities, so chances are the user has never ridden anything motorized in the first place), they're the ones leaving them in the middle of the sidewalk (literally, rather than off so the side), or wherever.
If you add regulations or additional requirements to the user agreements or laws (e.g. user must know something; or fine if caught littering the middle of the sidewalk or private property), they won't get the use or acceptance they're targeting.

Now if something happens and somebody gets seriously hurt or killed, riding on the, tripping on them, etc., and there is a big liability for the city or companies, you might see some more thought put into it.

[markz]

Be interesting to see how many scooters and ebikes are "lost" and even Lime cant find them.
Also, how many people are getting hurt on the scooters, and how many people are the scooters hurting whom are just walking.
Sue the city, Lime and the rider.

.

[miro13car]

MarkZ
I just discovered that Lime opened warehouse with tens of like scooters just less than 0.5 kilometers from my work place
Hopefully there will be some abandoned to pick up

[E-HP]

MarkZ
I just discovered that Lime opened warehouse with tens of like scooters just less than 0.5 kilometers from my work place
Hopefully there will be some abandoned to pick up

SF is doubling down. They just announced that 4 new companies were approved, bringing the total number of scooters to 4000 or 85 scooters per square mile.

Pretty soon there'll be more scooters than Starbucks

[E-HP]

As it stands, it's really the users that cause the problems. Beside not knowing how to operate them properly (they target the tourist cities, so chances are the user has never ridden anything motorized in the first place), they're the ones leaving them in the middle of the sidewalk (literally, rather than off so the side), or wherever.

Now if something happens and somebody gets seriously hurt or killed, riding on the, tripping on them, etc., and there is a big liability for the city or companies, you might see some more thought put into it.

I just saw a news story that a lady in L.A. is suing the city because she was injured tripping over a scooter that was left in the middle of the sidewalk. It will be interesting to see how the city reacts.

[goatman]

sounds like Markz was in LA karate kicking scooters.

[wturber]

I just saw a news story that a lady in L.A. is suing the city because she was injured tripping over a scooter that was left in the middle of the sidewalk. It will be interesting to see how the city reacts.

If it is the Santa Monica story, I expect that she will win. She's 88 years old. What I don't understand is why her daughter isn't also named in the lawsuit since she saw all the scooters and didn't find another place to drop her mother off.

https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2019/11 ... ta-monica/

[miro13car]

Today I saw a man walking Lime scooter with dead battery or maybe broken?
He got behind the building and started to unscrew covers looking for GPS? to depower it?

[E-HP]

Today I saw a man walking Lime scooter with dead battery or maybe broken?
He got behind the building and started to unscrew covers looking for GPS? to depower it?

The new trend that I see now are homeless folks riding them around like push scooters. No charging necessary.

[AZeBikeGuy]

Steal battery?

[HK12K]

I'd kind of like to see them in my city but the reality is they would all be stolen and stripped in short order. Worse than that though, they might start to draw the ire of the RCMP which means crackdowns and enforcement du jour. For the children.

[miro13car]

I understand Limes have all installed GPS locators so company can find them, right?
now
when you push it on your property they are going o find it before battery dies.
Obviously GPS is powered from seperate battery.

[HK12K]

I understand Limes have all installed GPS locators so company can find them, right?
now
when you push it on your property they are going o find it before battery dies.
Obviously GPS is powered from seperate battery.

All it takes is one industrious crackhead to tear one apart in an alley or wooded area and they'll know exactly how to disable them in the future, then they'll share that info with their peers. From there they'll be stripped down to the raw metal and sold for scrap value as fast as they can deploy them, at least in my city. Not to mention that the type of people thieving these things probably aren't homeowners. If the last known location is entering a low income apartment building with hundreds of units or greenbelt behind the bottle depot, there isn't much that's going to help them in their recovery efforts once the signal goes dark.

[E-HP]

I understand Limes have all installed GPS locators so company can find them, right?
now
when you push it on your property they are going o find it before battery dies.
Obviously GPS is powered from seperate battery.

I think the GPS is mainly there for charging purpose rather than recovery. I see workers in flatbed trucks driving down the street collecting them for charging. I don't think they get paid to do repossession work, which comes with it's own risks. Unless they do a full sweep, there isn't a way by looking at a GPS and determine whether the scooter just needs charging or is being torn apart. The crackheads just need to have someone watching out for the flatbed going down the street, and walk it over a block off their route.

(The rental ebikes have a decent size hailong pack. Those would be better targets for battery thieves. Might damage it popping it off with a crowbar, but if you just want the cells...)

[AZeBikeGuy]

They do get paid for recovering, charging and putting at designated spots - had a buddy doing it

I don't know if he just drove around or they were locatable via the GPS but I presumed they would be

[markz]

Gps wont work 4 stories down in an underground garage sorrounded by concrete inside a $20/day uhaul.