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I cannot stand the Limes and Birds around Santa Monica. I walk out of my apartment, and the streets are littered with them. It's annoying when walking, it's e
by dvt 8y ago
I cannot stand the Limes and Birds around Santa Monica.
I walk out of my apartment, and the streets are littered with them. It's annoying when walking, it's even more annoying when jogging, and riders are constantly riding them (without helmets) on sidewalks even though we have bike lanes. They're even a nuisance when driving.
I'm hoping for some legislation that will ban them -- I might set up a grassroots campaign myself. It's mostly the tourists using them, anyway.
- oh_sigh 8y agoIs there a reason these don't count as just trash? If I leave my scooter lying on the side of the road, I would never assume that it would still be there if I came back to it.
- cwkoss 8y agoSet up a shop buying and selling "secondhand scooter parts" - don't ask too many questions and you could make a nice profit while incentivizing others to dismantle their inventory.
- draw_down 8y agoSelling to whom?
- madengr 8y agoI was thinking scrap value. Toss them in an industrial shredder, sans battery pack, then separate out the metals. Maybe a mobile shredder.
- cwkoss 8y agoYep, plus battery packs, wheels, and electronics would probably have some resale value once parted out, especially if you can provide larger lots.
- blhack 8y agoWhy not do the exact same thing with cars? Heck, why not just break into people's homes and rob them while you're at it!
- madengr 8y agoSidewalks are usually right-of-way private property. Dumping scooters in them, might as well be litter.
- etrautmann 8y agoI feel exactly the same... about cars. In all seriousness, they should have dedicated docking spots but even one parking spot per block would be more than enough and would solve the problem.
- kerng 8y agoI am also in favor of dedicating some parking spots of cars to alternative transports, like scooters. Cars all over the place is just as "ugly" as scooters.
- gammateam 8y agoIts gotten a lot better outside of Santa Monica I've seen it in snapshots over the last 6 months regarding your banning campaign, outgoing Governor Brown basically enshrined them into the California fabric just now
- dboon 8y agoI was actually in Santa Monica / Venice area for the first time a few weeks ago. I was /floored/ with how many scooters there were. I live in Atlanta and find them to be super awesome and unintrusive, but I could understand how the sheer quantity could put you off of them. At least realize that they aren't so ridiculously overpopulated in other places -- it's probably the tourists that make it financially worth it to put out a deluge of them.
- dvt 8y agoI was in Atlanta last month, and outside of Midtown (Tech/GSU), I didn't see them anywhere else. Here, we have them in SM/Venice, in Westwood, in Culver City, in DTLA, etc.
- zeendo 8y agoThey're all over Atlanta. Midtown probably has the highest density of them but they're all over downtown, west midtown, Old 4th ward, Decatur, Reynoldstown, Cabbagetown, etc. Go down Memorial or DeKalb heading east in the morning and you'll see rows and rows of them freshly set out ready to be kicked over like dominos by some jerk.
- bllguo 8y agoI know bird is hq'ed in santa monica, so that would partly explain the numbers
- Cristian_knur 8y agoPartially. We are also in Venice, Culver City and Compton.
- prawn 8y agoNew things bring a particular reaction in some people. The streets around me are lined densely with parked cars. They take up a lot of space, impair visibility, etc but people look past them. Add a shared bike on the corner of one block and because it is new/novel some think it's a messy outrage. (I drive and use street parking. There are no scooters here, but I'd love to have them as part of the city's ecosystem in the future.)
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- cortesoft 8y agoI am not sure if it IS mostly tourists. I see a lot of people riding them from the office to lunch places and the like.
- prawn 8y ago"without helmets" - curious why you felt this was worth mentioning?
- dvt 8y agoBecause, by law, you need to wear a helmet when riding a scooter.
- mulligan 8y agoNot in California, at least
- dvt 8y agoYou're right, didn't realize the requirement was removed a few months ago[1] [1] https://la.curbed.com/2018/9/21/17884220/bird-lime-scooters-rules-helmets-california https://la.curbed.com/2018/9/21/17884220/bird-lime-scooters-...
- prawn 8y agoWhy would that bother you? It's not your skull going unprotected, right? If you stretch an argument to worry about public funds lost to medical bills or lawsuits, someone might respond that the more people we encourage to leave their cars at home, the better we are off when it comes to safety, pollution, congestion, noise, etc. I walk out of my place and there are huge lines of cars parked against the kerb, I can hear car traffic constantly even from inside the building, it can be dangerous to cross the road, and so on. I've been to Santa Monica a few times and know that the same applies there. What gives you such a strong reaction to this new option that you might not apply to an existing technology? With anything new there is a settling period. It makes for an interesting discussion (where to park them, etc) but you sound pretty outraged: cannot stand. littered. annoying. constantly riding them without helmets! nuisance. ban.
- ravenstine 8y agoI live in Santa Monica and that sounds exactly like my experience. Don't you also love those hideous red bikes from Uber? haha Fortunately I'm seeing less of them. At the very least, people should actually get licensed to ride these things. I know that it requires they have a driver's license, but that doesn't mean they're actually trained to ride these scooters around in traffic. At that rate, why even bother having licenses for motorcycle riders? A regular driver's license and training for a regular car is apparently all they need.
- the_clarence 8y agoI feel completely the opposite. I wish they were everywhere in SF so that we would have less cars and I wouldn’t have to take cabs to commute everywhere.