20 ms·

San Francisco to scooter startups: Your customers are terrible

10 points by okket 9y ago

cbhl 9y ago
Cities are far too car-centric now. Though I expect the anti-techie/anti-shuttle NIMBYs will be out to "save their parking spots and public rights of way". There's an easy solution to the "blocking the door" problem: convert on-street parking spaces into parking for dockless bikes and scooters. (Yes, that means building garages to offset the lost on-street parking.) If you dedicate clearly marked space for parking bikes and scooters, then people will try to do the right thing. Google has had a utopic bike-sharing system on its campus for years (at great cost -- the bikes keep getting stolen). It would be great to get something like that in the "real world". I think JUMP bikes is closest, but there aren't nearly enough bike racks in SF for JUMP to fully roll out with the ubiquity of the Google bikes.
- nowarninglabel 9y ago
  Or, you know, folks could just park these somewhere other than in front of the door or the middle of the sidewalk. Say, for instance, the side of the sidewalk. Or directly to the side of the door. I'm not one to complain, but I would agree things have gotten pretty ridiculous in the last couple weeks. Someone in front of me tripped over one walking this evening, because the scooter was parked smack in the middle of the sidewalk (at night).
  - andymoe 9y ago
    Maybe I’m not paying attention but I work in SOMA (scooter central) and have yet to see a scooter parked in the middle of the sidewalk or blocking a path. They are everywhere but not really under foot.
- sametmax 9y ago
  Bike sharing already work very well in many european countries. I don't see what you would need to imprive on thise, the systems in paris or frankfurt are fantastic and i use them regularly.
Manfred 9y ago
It seems to me that the solution here is to fine people when they misbehave. In the Amsterdam it was very common for people to ride on bikes without lights. A year of targeted action by the police fixed that almost entirely.
forkLding 9y ago
Damn and I thought Chinese bikeshare companies were stupidly losing money and ubiquitous.
txsh 9y ago
Scooter startups, why not pay homeless people to relocate scooters to safe areas after people leave them? You would be doing a good thing and cities would be happy to deal with your scooters if you deal with their homeless problem.

10 points by okket 9y ago

cbhl 9y ago

Cities are far too car-centric now. Though I expect the anti-techie/anti-shuttle NIMBYs will be out to "save their parking spots and public rights of way". There's an easy solution to the "blocking the door" problem: convert on-street parking spaces into parking for dockless bikes and scooters. (Yes, that means building garages to offset the lost on-street parking.) If you dedicate clearly marked space for parking bikes and scooters, then people will try to do the right thing. Google has had a utopic bike-sharing system on its campus for years (at great cost -- the bikes keep getting stolen). It would be great to get something like that in the "real world". I think JUMP bikes is closest, but there aren't nearly enough bike racks in SF for JUMP to fully roll out with the ubiquity of the Google bikes.

nowarninglabel 9y ago
Or, you know, folks could just park these somewhere other than in front of the door or the middle of the sidewalk. Say, for instance, the side of the sidewalk. Or directly to the side of the door. I'm not one to complain, but I would agree things have gotten pretty ridiculous in the last couple weeks. Someone in front of me tripped over one walking this evening, because the scooter was parked smack in the middle of the sidewalk (at night).
- andymoe 9y ago
  Maybe I’m not paying attention but I work in SOMA (scooter central) and have yet to see a scooter parked in the middle of the sidewalk or blocking a path. They are everywhere but not really under foot.
sametmax 9y ago
Bike sharing already work very well in many european countries. I don't see what you would need to imprive on thise, the systems in paris or frankfurt are fantastic and i use them regularly.

Manfred 9y ago

It seems to me that the solution here is to fine people when they misbehave. In the Amsterdam it was very common for people to ride on bikes without lights. A year of targeted action by the police fixed that almost entirely.

forkLding 9y ago

Damn and I thought Chinese bikeshare companies were stupidly losing money and ubiquitous.

txsh 9y ago

Scooter startups, why not pay homeless people to relocate scooters to safe areas after people leave them? You would be doing a good thing and cities would be happy to deal with your scooters if you deal with their homeless problem.