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Comment by muyuu | Hacker News Reader

maximising revenue and control from the authority

it makes sense in a way

Except the streets are still littered with them. While cycling to work a while ago, i came across one parked in the middle of a segregated bike lane, in between a fence and a lane of heavy traffic. If this is the authority maximising control, i dread to think what uncontrolled use looks like.

The rental escooters in London are terrible. You need a driving licence to use them, unlike rental ebikes. Yet they are slower than an ebike or even a regular bike. They are also really expensive. Then add to that the fact that'll they all have geofencing which (i) forces you off the less occupied bike lanes or roads in many cases (eg in/near the Royal Parks - including roads which are open to cars) and (ii) doesn't work properly so that if you're just near to a "slow" area but not on it then you end up having to push them.

This is all entirely down to government enforced regulations - honestly I'm not sure why the companies bothered putting them in at all as they must have pretty well zero repeat custom.

Meanwhile there are plenty of non rental escooters on the bike lanes which seem to work pretty well for people, despite being technically illegal.

I'm pretty sure the taxi-cab lobby groups in London are heavily influencing these stupid decisions that make e-scooters a less viable option for getting around.

I don't have much to explain why they're banned from parks which allow you to drive a range rover through them.

On the other hand, I enjoyed using them last year while in London for work. Could get to our office quicker than using public transport, it was more pleasant than stuck in hot boxes moving around and only slightly more expensive (at least in my case).

it's more control than letting people own them, in a certain aspect

of course, carelessness is a problem but that also happens with so-called Boris bikes (Livingstone bikes)

> carelessness is a problem but that also happens with so-called Boris bikes (Livingstone bikes)

no. They are returned to docking stations. Other schemes litter the pavement

perhaps they do it more

I live near the DLR and I see vandalised, abandoned Boris bikes on the regular

I see this nonsense every day https://i.imgur.com/s59Bvf3.png

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