6 ms·

Regulatory moat is a possibility, where an established player can coerce a city to impose an expensive compliance guideline that prevents upstarts from entering

Regulatory moat is a possibility, where an established player can coerce a city to impose an expensive compliance guideline that prevents upstarts from entering.

ttul 8y ago
Yeah, I foresee cities picking a winner through a competitive process. What city wants 40 different scooter companies to deal with?
- _zachs 8y ago
  A city that values the free market!
- nordsieck 8y ago
  Sounds like a recipe to create the Comcast of electric scooters. The right way to solve the problem of too many electric vehicles on the sidewalks is to charge owners rent.
  - prawn 8y ago
    Have painted parking spaces in appropriate areas and charge for access via audit of scooters in a given zone (city, state, etc).
nathanm412 8y ago
A suburb of Columbus Ohio is starting a review process with Lime Bike. Depending on the outcome of a trial process, they'll announce a bidding process where the winner gets exclusive access to the city.
- sitkack 8y ago
  Is it a reverse auction or one where the company agrees to gouge the user with high fees that is passes a fraction of to the municipality?
angryasian 8y ago
I personally wish there were more regulations on these. They are a complete nuisance. Santa Monica has tried to create more laws surrounding these, but the cops never enforce the rules. Walking around sidewalks with younger kids is now dangerous from the groups of teenagers riding on these with little concern. In the same afternoon I saw a young kid get hit by a car for not following traffic rules. While its required to wear a helmet in SM no one was. These things are littered everywhere in paths just lying on the ground. I get they are great and if we could rely on the people or the company to enforce the laws and make it a better experience I'd be in favor of them because they are convenient. I just don't believe that will happen.
- dcosson 8y ago
  Wait, you saw a young kid get hit by a car and you're worried about scooters littering the sidewalks? How are those related?
  - angryasian 8y ago
    these are both hazards that are brought from the lack of user policing done by Bird who doesn't care about the city or users as long as they can profit.
- torgoguys 8y ago
  The sentiment of this argument parallels arguments made against cars when they started becoming common (suddenly over the place, dangerous, a nuisance). These complaints about scooters are a bit humerous because cars are still a nuisance, dangerous, littered all over. The difference is cars are a bigger danger, bigger nuisance, and if you think scooters are littered all over the place, have a look around at how much space all these cars are taking up! :-) We can get through this transition period and put in place reasonable rules that yes will eventually become commonly complied with. License scooter drivers and or the scooters themselves. Reserve one street parking space per block for scooters and you probably could cram 20 of them in there. Lots of things can be done.
  - 8y ago

Regulatory moat is a possibility, where an established player can coerce a city to impose an expensive compliance guideline that prevents upstarts from entering.

ttul 8y ago

Yeah, I foresee cities picking a winner through a competitive process. What city wants 40 different scooter companies to deal with?

_zachs 8y ago
A city that values the free market!
nordsieck 8y ago
Sounds like a recipe to create the Comcast of electric scooters. The right way to solve the problem of too many electric vehicles on the sidewalks is to charge owners rent.
- prawn 8y ago
  Have painted parking spaces in appropriate areas and charge for access via audit of scooters in a given zone (city, state, etc).

nathanm412 8y ago

A suburb of Columbus Ohio is starting a review process with Lime Bike. Depending on the outcome of a trial process, they'll announce a bidding process where the winner gets exclusive access to the city.

sitkack 8y ago
Is it a reverse auction or one where the company agrees to gouge the user with high fees that is passes a fraction of to the municipality?

angryasian 8y ago

I personally wish there were more regulations on these. They are a complete nuisance. Santa Monica has tried to create more laws surrounding these, but the cops never enforce the rules. Walking around sidewalks with younger kids is now dangerous from the groups of teenagers riding on these with little concern. In the same afternoon I saw a young kid get hit by a car for not following traffic rules. While its required to wear a helmet in SM no one was. These things are littered everywhere in paths just lying on the ground. I get they are great and if we could rely on the people or the company to enforce the laws and make it a better experience I'd be in favor of them because they are convenient. I just don't believe that will happen.

dcosson 8y ago
Wait, you saw a young kid get hit by a car and you're worried about scooters littering the sidewalks? How are those related?
- angryasian 8y ago
  these are both hazards that are brought from the lack of user policing done by Bird who doesn't care about the city or users as long as they can profit.
torgoguys 8y ago
The sentiment of this argument parallels arguments made against cars when they started becoming common (suddenly over the place, dangerous, a nuisance). These complaints about scooters are a bit humerous because cars are still a nuisance, dangerous, littered all over. The difference is cars are a bigger danger, bigger nuisance, and if you think scooters are littered all over the place, have a look around at how much space all these cars are taking up! :-) We can get through this transition period and put in place reasonable rules that yes will eventually become commonly complied with. License scooter drivers and or the scooters themselves. Reserve one street parking space per block for scooters and you probably could cram 20 of them in there. Lots of things can be done.
- 8y ago