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Comment by dvt | Hacker News Reader

They're all over West LA (Santa Monica, UCLA, Westwood, etc.). It's crazy to me that they are raising this much money for one simple reason: to ride the scooter, you are required by law to wear a helmet. I have friends that have gotten fined because they're riding a Bird without a helmet. And no one in their right mind will carry a helmet around on the off-chance they might ride a scooter.

But it's a neat idea. And if they change the law, it'll be super profitable (especially around campuses).

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Anecdotally, my sense as a Santa Monica local is that the helmet requirement is no longer being enforced in Santa Monica. I've ridden by cops several times in the last few days, no issues.

So I think it has somehow been negotiated with the authorities.

Yeah, I live in SM and cops are pretty lenient -- the bike-only lanes (on Broadway/Santa Monica Blvd./etc.) I'm sure also help reduce risk of accidents. UCLA is a different story though.

Yeah, my sense was that Santa Monica simply wanted to get the company's attention so they could cooperate. Now that their talking, it seems like they've backed off a bit.

Still want the cops to warn or ticket the folks who ride on the sidewalk though.

> if they change the law, it'll be super profitable

It sounds like the Uber model: ignore the law and try to get big enough to change it. Honestly, how much would it cost them to equip each garbage scooter with a garbage helmet? An extra dollar or two?

Santa Monica and West LA were bad enough before becoming infested with incompetents on scooters.

So this is what I thought, but if it's enforced as much as needing helmet to ride a bike is enforced, then it's less of an issue.

Helmet rental? Not a hard problem to solve. Already being done at ski resorts and go kart tracks across the country. They usually give you a "sock" to put over your head.

Also, if you rent a "real" scooter or motorcycle they usually have helmets you can use.

Ski Resorts and Go Kart Tracks are non-moving locations.

Scooters that you can leave anywhere, and find anywhere - that's not just "helmet rental in location X". That's "helmet rental _anywhere_". Seems like a hard problem to me.

Just to clarify: a "sock" won't work here, you need an actual hard helmet. The problem is that Birds are left just willy-nilly (on any street/at any location). It would defeat the purpose of the concept to have "base camps" where people grab helmets.

Got it, the article made it sound like there were fixed locations. Also, a sock is just a term for a disposable liner that goes inside the helmet.

> Also, a sock is just a term for a disposable liner that goes inside the helmet.

Yeah, I know. I thought some places (like kiddie go-kart places) only give you the sock and don't require the hard helmet to go with it but maybe I'm wrong.

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