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Comment by cpsempek | Hacker News Reader

First of all, this is great. The thing that bike share programs lack IMO is the tech and logistics savvy of a company like uber.

In Santa Monica and the west side of LA we have an electric scooter service called Bird, which was started by a ex-lyft/uber excec, and it has been successfull from an outsider's perspective. The most convenient aspect of this service is that you can drop off the scooter anywhere you want, there are no designated drop off zones, which is a true solution to the last mile problem. Main issues they need to resolve from a user stand point is better inventory allocation (hard to find a pair of or multiple scooters near each other for multiple riders to travel together).

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>The most convenient aspect of this service is that you can drop off the scooter anywhere you want, there are no designated drop off zones, which is a true solution to the last mile problem.

In Dallas, there are 6 different bikeshare companies that all operate with this model of "leave the bike where ever you want when done", and it's resulted in most of the city reviling all of the bikeshare companies. The bikes end up left in the most inconvenient places: knocked over in the middle of the sidewalk, stashed in bushes, knocked into fountains, blocking accessibility ramps, on the side of a road where they can be hit by cars, blocking train tracks, and just in general littered everywhere. You literally can't walk a single block in downtown without seeing at least 50 bikes strewn across the bushes/sidewalks/etc. The city is actually exploring ways to restrict this type of "dockless" bike sharing because it's become such a nuisance.

See some pics here: http://www.dallasobserver.com/news/dallas-bike-share-mess-ph...

This seems like such an easy thing to prevent. Make people lock the bikes to something, a fence, a sign, whatever. If a bike ends up in a tree, the last person to borrow it is responsible. Give customer support some flexibility to avoid this being to harsh. Biggest downside is that it won't work with the locks currently installed on those bikes.

Yes, this is a problem with the scooters too. I think there is some volume limit to the device, smaller is better for the reasons you state, which is why I think the scooter it ideal to the bike in this regard.

I wonder if this could be explained as a culture difference - speaking as a native Texan turned San Francisco resident, it is my feeling (unbacked by any other data) that here the community is more communal - compliance with recycling/compost is greater, shared resources seem cleaner / more respected (I don't see dockless bikes or Scoots left strewn around), and even in traffic people generally defer to letting someone in to the lane or waiting for a pedestrian (in Houston it's more typical to see people skipping exit lines and trying to cut in at the last second, or aggressively cutting off pedestrians).

No I think the tragedy of the commons would still take hold in SF without some kind of penalty in place (either by the company or by the government, or both) for leaving the bike in a bad spot. Of course this will require a method of enforcement as well.

The main problem with the Byrd scooters is that the users turn them into safety hazards after they use them. Every time I see one of those Byrd scooters blocking the sidewalk, I physically throw them out of the way. About half the time, they form safety hazards blocking the sidewalk (and in rare cases, part of traffic lanes).

There were two blocking the Metro station last week. I threw them in the bushes. The sheriff at the top of the stairs gave me a thumbs up and said he wished he could have done that.

The City is currently in the process of evaluating restrictions on where the Byrd scooters can be dropped off, to avoid safety hazards like that one.

Like all new technology and adoption patterns the cities will adapt. Just like the flourish of bike lanes and places to lock bikes in most major cities around the world as urban bike commuting rose in popularity.

Eventually the users, company, and cities will adapt and provide better training and designated spots. Assholes abuse every service available to the public. Hell, even social pressure and ridicule from the public may even help solve this problem as people learn to spot someone being an asshole and leaving a scooter somewhere in the way.

Although Im sure plenty of cities will rush to ban them rather than adapt and update old rules to modern technolohical progress. Then stick their fingers in their ears pretending there isnt real value and huge demand for the services, or lessons to be learned from other cities who learned to adapt rather than fight progress.

> There were two blocking the Metro station last week. I threw them in the bushes.

Why? What would be wrong with simply moving them aside? Are you trying to make a statement? Are you a volunteer part-time member of the Safety Patrol?

I’m not sure why attempting to vandalize/destroy/harm something that isn’t yours is justified because you were offended. Do you smash windshields of illegally parked cars? How about kick dogs that aren’t properly leashed?

Probably he just hates bushes.

Bird seems destined to fail to me. I've seen these things left all over the place, e.g. they're supposed to be in Santa Monica but I've seen them all the way in Manhattan Beach (>12 miles south). How are they supposed to get charged and placed in convenient locations?

Their solution currently is to have people drive around at night and corral the scooters, bring to a charging warehouse and then redistribute in the morning. Quite an expensive process that they need to streamline. They are attempting to crowdsource the charging by paying people $10 a night to charge a bird at their home (or anywhere)

I remember seeing those black Bird scooters just randomly laying in the middle of sidewalks in Santa Monica. I wonder if that has any impact on maintenance or scooters being stolen.

I’ve ridden some Bird scooters in Santa Monica. They’re amazingly fun. But yes, scooters are left at night, especially on the beach bike path when they finally run out of battery. I can’t imagine Bird not sinking a lot of money into gathering those scooters and charging them every night.

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