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Comment by iAMkenough | Hacker News Reader

I don't blame the municipalities for holding private companies accountable when scooters inevitably end up blocking ADA accessible routes or end up thrown in the river. It's expensive to deal with these issues, and since American consumers won't take personal responsibility, it should rightfully be at the private company's expense.

Rentable scooters require 24/7 staff with collection vehicles in nearly every municipality they exist, and municipalities have a right to demand a standard of service in addressing issues caused by the private scooter rental customers.

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It’s not nearly as expensive as subsidizing bus routes to the tune of $19 for every $1 of bus fare collected, like in my home town. But it solves about 80% of trips that would require 3x more bus dollars to be invested than are already being squandered.

This solved the last mile problem in a fashion no one else has to date. Every thing else in comparison on both convenience and cost is a joke.

Moving some scooters off of an ADA ramp is the least of our worries. And I’m guessing less than 1% of these wound up in a river, not that any city would care if they didn’t feel threatened in their monopoly on solving traffic problems.

Inefficiently run bus systems are a whole other issue. We need to move away from running largely empty gigantic vehicles over roads when the demand isn't there, and transition to public transit that aggressively scales based on data-driven demand measurements.

I don't know why on-demand public transit systems aren't more popular.

Edit: > Moving some scooters off of an ADA ramp is the least of our worries.

Probably because you're not the person who is called when someone with mobility issues can't get to a bus stop.

>I don't know why on-demand public transit systems aren't more popular.

This is just a taxi.

Or a ride share. Or a scooter.

OP just wants the government to monopolize transit because he really doesn’t want folks having autonomy of mobility.

> Probably because you're not the person who is called when someone with mobility issues can't get to a bus stop.

I realize you’re accustomed probably to arguing by using these types of straw men with preserved topics that cannot be criticized. But you’ll need to show some data exhibiting how many ramps were blocked by scooters versus other obstacles around here to garner any credibility.

Not sure exactly what you’re trying to get across here? I’ve seen this happen more than once.

Your anecdata isn’t evidence of anything, and there is a far greater on-balance positive EV to society for solving transportation problems. If we need to pay someone to mind the scooters in the accessible path, that’s a solution. It’s not a reason to discard the only solution that has produced results in the past 75 years.

What I take particular objection to is the suggestion that it’s my lack of empathy for folks needing accessible ramps that drives my affection for having a more convenient life where traffic problems can actually be solved.

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