The usability difference between scooters and bikes is meaningful. They fit into a totally seamless user experience that would be very difficult to manage with

The usability difference between scooters and bikes is meaningful. They fit into a totally seamless user experience that would be very difficult to manage with bikes. They’re more tamper-proof, smaller, easier to hop on and off of, easier to manage in crowds, etc. Anectdotally, Bird scooters have melded into the environment in Santa Monica, Westwood, and the UCLA campus in a way that I can’t imagine happening with bikes. Bird scooters are all over the place these days without being nearly as cumbersome as I imagine bikes would be. As a few others have noted in this thread, Bird is exploding in LA right now, and I believe it’s because of their approach to a seamless user experience. The 10% difference in usability between bike sharing and electric scooter sharing seems to make all the difference.