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Author here. What a great surprise to see my article here. Any comments and suggestions are highly appreciated (since my page has no comment function yet). Sid

by sknzl 7y ago

Author here. What a great surprise to see my article here. Any comments and suggestions are highly appreciated (since my page has no comment function yet). Side note: I’m not using google analytics or anything privacy concerning on the page. I host my own instance of Ackee. That’s where I found HN as the top referrer.

Gys 7y ago
Nice one. But I was a little confused: this is 'only' about Circ? Did you consider to investigate the other companies as well? Seems there are at least four more ;-) To really say something about 'scooters in Lisbon' and 'compare with other cities' more data is needed. One could think the hardest part of starting a new scooter company these days is finding a differentiating color...
- clan 7y ago
  From the article: Note: I was also trying to retrieve similar information for Lime scooters. However, the Lime API does not return a unique Scooter ID. For every request the returned scooter IDs are randomized (and internally they map them to their real IDs), which makes it impossible to track individual scooters.
- netsharc 7y ago
  One could also try the data of car sharers with floating fleets ("leave the car legally parked anywhere within their business area") like car2go. Incidentally, in comparison with car sharing, I hate these scooters. With cars you have to park them legally or the you (the last renter) will have to pay the potential parking ticket. With scooters, people can easily lift and move them, so the last renter has plausible deniability if they parked idiotically. End result? They're all parked fucking idiotically.
bransonf 7y ago
> the Lime API does not return a unique Scooter ID. For every request the returned scooter IDs are randomized How did you figure this out? I’ve been playing with this scooter data for a while (Lime included) and I’ve always been able to correctly map scooter ID uniquely to a scooter at a location. Multiple requests will return the same scooter in the same location and I’ve always believed the same ID in a different place later meant the scooter actually moved.
- sknzl 7y ago
  When I was trying to retrieve the same data from Lime API as I did for Circ, I retrieved only unique scooter ids. Even after recording 24h. First I was puzzled, but then I realized that many different scooter ids are at exactly the same GPS coordinates (also same battery level, etc). That's how I reached my conclusion. But I might be wrong about this. I'll give it a second try for confirmation.
  - bransonf 7y ago
    It’s possible that Lime operates differently in Portugal than US, too. Also, I had a look at your repository and it’s fantastic. Great work on this.
bitfhacker 7y ago
Great use of mitmproxy and data! Nice article! Did you choose Lisbon for any particular reason? I'm from Lisbon.
- sknzl 7y ago
  Lisbon is my 'home' since ~8 years. Since I know the place well I started there. But as suggested I would like to collect similar data for several (European) cities and compare the results. For example Lisbon has a very high tourists/locals ratio which can be a reason for the huge number of trips shorter than 1km.

by sknzl 7y ago

Gys 7y ago

Nice one. But I was a little confused: this is 'only' about Circ? Did you consider to investigate the other companies as well? Seems there are at least four more ;-) To really say something about 'scooters in Lisbon' and 'compare with other cities' more data is needed. One could think the hardest part of starting a new scooter company these days is finding a differentiating color...

clan 7y ago
From the article: Note: I was also trying to retrieve similar information for Lime scooters. However, the Lime API does not return a unique Scooter ID. For every request the returned scooter IDs are randomized (and internally they map them to their real IDs), which makes it impossible to track individual scooters.
netsharc 7y ago
One could also try the data of car sharers with floating fleets ("leave the car legally parked anywhere within their business area") like car2go. Incidentally, in comparison with car sharing, I hate these scooters. With cars you have to park them legally or the you (the last renter) will have to pay the potential parking ticket. With scooters, people can easily lift and move them, so the last renter has plausible deniability if they parked idiotically. End result? They're all parked fucking idiotically.

bransonf 7y ago

> the Lime API does not return a unique Scooter ID. For every request the returned scooter IDs are randomized How did you figure this out? I’ve been playing with this scooter data for a while (Lime included) and I’ve always been able to correctly map scooter ID uniquely to a scooter at a location. Multiple requests will return the same scooter in the same location and I’ve always believed the same ID in a different place later meant the scooter actually moved.

sknzl 7y ago
When I was trying to retrieve the same data from Lime API as I did for Circ, I retrieved only unique scooter ids. Even after recording 24h. First I was puzzled, but then I realized that many different scooter ids are at exactly the same GPS coordinates (also same battery level, etc). That's how I reached my conclusion. But I might be wrong about this. I'll give it a second try for confirmation.
- bransonf 7y ago
  It’s possible that Lime operates differently in Portugal than US, too. Also, I had a look at your repository and it’s fantastic. Great work on this.

bitfhacker 7y ago

Great use of mitmproxy and data! Nice article! Did you choose Lisbon for any particular reason? I'm from Lisbon.

sknzl 7y ago
Lisbon is my 'home' since ~8 years. Since I know the place well I started there. But as suggested I would like to collect similar data for several (European) cities and compare the results. For example Lisbon has a very high tourists/locals ratio which can be a reason for the huge number of trips shorter than 1km.