The economics of scooter rentals.

$1 to unlock it then $0.15/min and in some cities its double that :shock:
Car2Go is like $0.30 or $0.40/minutes, the cars they use are $25k+ while the scooters are like $1k

I have eyeballed the Lime e-bicycles twice now, I am still surprised their not thrown into dumpsters, or maybe they are I do not know. The one I eyeballed today, had a broken spoke, and the U-lock goes through the wheel, I even tried to move it a bit to break another spoke :oops: then tried to figure out how the motor and battery were fastened :wink: if you know what I mean :wink: The motor had Bafang on it, no wattage markings but I am sure its a useless 250W model.
 
Looks like they may be coming to Vancouver;
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/60224654563?aff=efbneb

Does anyone know any decent data out there on accidents, legal costs etc over a reasonable timespan in a city?
A comparison with shared bikes vs shared electric kick scooters would be interesting. I love riding all kinds of micro electric & human powered vehicles, but I share Chalo's concerns with safety. Even on manual kick scooters most people I know who tried eventually gave up after a bad tumble. They take a lot more skill to ride than a bike, which takes a lot more skill to ride than a car. Most people never think about this, only us enthusiasts who are maybe 5% of society?
 
https://wtop.com/business-finance/2019/05/how-long-do-those-e-scooters-last-not-long/amp/

E-scooter company Bird, one of several companies with fleets of scooters deployed around the Washington, D.C. region, said when it first hit the streets two years ago, the consumer-grade scooters it was using lasted three months, at best, because of the abuse and constant use the e-scooters were getting.
Click to expand...

[Bird] has now moved into the business of selling its scooters. They sell for about $1,300
Click to expand...

Good luck with that. You'll need it.
 
And they still aren't generating a profit.

https://news.crunchbase.com/news/the-revenue-costs-and-margins-behind-birds-scooters/
http://fortune.com/2019/05/08/bird-one-scooter-sale/
 
I want in on the stream of batteries salvaged from dead Birds and squashed Limes. There must be thousands of the things getting cast off all the time.
 
Man beats women to death with a Bird Scooter:

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-scooter-attack-charges-20190515-story.html

A man accused of beating a woman to death with an electric scooter in broad daylight in Long Beach has been charged with murder, Los Angeles County prosecutors said Wednesday.

Amad Rashad Redding, 27, faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted. His arraignment is scheduled for May 29.

Redding was arrested Monday, hours after he allegedly attacked 63-year-old Rosa Hernandez on the sidewalk in the 3100 block of East 64th Street. Authorities say Redding attacked Hernandez and knocked her to the ground, where he kicked and stomped on her, then used a Bird scooter to bludgeon her. She died at the scene.

Authorities have not determined a motive. It did not appear the two knew each other. Redding is described by police as a transient. Hernandez’s neighbors described her to ABC-TV Channel 7 as a babysitter who was dropping off a gift to a relative’s home when she was killed.

Community members have raised more than $
 
This article (https://mashable.com/article/escooter-lifespan-shared-new-models/) says the original scooters last only 28 days on average, with more robust models coming out. So the "investment cost" is going to be a lot higher. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a shortage of skilled maintenance techs, and the scooters get junked. Maybe they send them back to China for refurbishing. Interestingly, the company (https://www.superpedestrian.com/en) that developed the "Copenhagen Wheel" is moving into the business of robust scooters.
 
This article says Bird scooter lifespan has increased to 15 months (although self-reported metrics should be taken with a grain of salt).
https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/3/20895798/bird-scooter-fundraising-valuation-unit-economics

Also, pricing has risen from $0.15 to $0.26 per minute.
https://www.smdp.com/lyft-raises-scooter-prices-to-0-26-per-minute-joining-bird-lime-and-jump/179791

But the short wheelbase, small wheels, and high center of gravity are going to keep causing faceplants that helmets [edit: bicycle helmets] don't really protect against.
https://www.wthr.com/article/indianapolis-man-seriously-injured-scooter-crash

Multi-billion dollar companies must be juicy targets for lawsuits by angry customers.
 
Breta was invited, while she flew on an airplane, took a taxi, then someone gave her handlers/parents to drive a Tesla to look the part.

All the while China, India, Pakistan and every other 3rd world shithole are a million times worse.

Funny how she came when we were having an election.

E-town is grimy, but I was up there a few wks ago, passing through. Was planning to stay, by West Edmnonton Mall and hit the waterslides, walk the mall, for a day then kick it, the biggest mall in Canada/NA/World, at one point perhaps. But I get irritated to easily and just left E-Town. Scooter wise, well I was downtown, saw the same things in E-Town as the C-Town<--the better town that is ;)

One thing I noticed in C-Town, was a 20ish guy, maybe 30ish had his own e-scooter.
Today I noticed Crappy tire had on display in the center main aisle a e-scooter with a folding T handle. Not much confident in its folding design.
I then ran into a rental scooter and wondered what it'd take to get to the battery or take off the motor.
 
All the while China, India, Pakistan and every other 3rd world shithole are a million times worse.
Click to expand...
Canada emits four times more CO2 than Pakistan while Canada has one sixth the population, but you're cursing Pakistan? What's your problem? BTW, China is considered 2nd world now (like Russia).
 
Following months of conflict over a controversial data-sharing policy, Los Angeles has temporarily suspended Uber’s permit to rent electric scooters and bicycles on city streets and sidewalks.

The company’s subsidiary, Jump, must appeal the decision by Friday or leave the city, the Transportation Department told the company in a letter last week. For now, customers can still rent the vivid red scooters and electric bikes through the Jump app.
Click to expand...
https://www.latimes.com/california/...-privacy#nt=liApromoMedium-1col-7030col1-main
 
Man hit in face by scooter as Trump supporters, protesters clash in California
By Owen Daugherty - 11/17/19 05:09 PM EST

https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-brie...-scooter-as-trump-supporters-protesters-clash

A man who was demonstrating in support of President Trump over the weekend was hit in the face with a scooter by an anti-Trump protestor, according to witnesses who spoke with the Long Beach Post.

The news outlet reports the incident took place Saturday as Trump supporters and opponents clashed near the site of the California Democratic Convention.

It’s unclear who initiated the fight, the news outlet notes, but witnesses reported one of the anti-Trump protesters hit a Trump supporter in the face with a manual scooter during the clash.

“It happened really fast,” Raul Rodriguez Jr., who was holding a sign in support of Trump’s reelection, told the Long Beach Post.

About a dozen Trump supporters stood outside the Long Beach Convention Center, where the event was being held, using bullhorns and chanting “Four more years!”

Rodriguez said two men came up to him and the other Trump supporters and started “harassing” them.

In a tweet addressing the incident, the Long Beach Police Department said it "is committed to ensuring everyone’s 1st Amendment rights, but we also want to remind you that any violence of any kind will not be tolerated in our community.”

Three people were taken into custody and all three were charged with assault with a deadly weapon that was not a firearm, the department’s public information officer Arantxa Chavarria told the news outlet.

Two people involved in the incident were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment for lacerations, Chavarria added.

Eight Democratic presidential candidates were in attendance at the convention on Saturday.
Click to expand...
 
BTW - The title on that YouTube video is misleading. The video was fact checked and it was some scooter company in China got bought out by another larger company for pennies on the dollar and that parent company decided they didn't want to be in the scooter business for many reasons so they parked the scooters. Nothing to do about EOL of the batteries.
 
Wondering what everyone is seeing in there area now?

Don't see scooters every where now. They are not in the News anymore. You are required to have a Drivers License to rent one in San Antonio, TX.
 
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