Hi all. Last week we discussed how sometimes the goals of start ups aren’t achieved and that they have to go back to the drawing board. Well a former executive for Uber and Lyft realized that their start ups aren’t helping alleviate the problem of traffic congestion and pollution so they decided to start a scooter sharing service. The company, Bird, launched in September 2017 has recorded more than 50K riders. It works kind of like those Limebikes that we see around campus.
Annie, thanks for sharing. I saw a similar article last week about Bird floating around Facebook because of recent efforts by the City of Santa Monica to ban the Bird scooters. It seems like a cool concept to me, and I could definitely see myself utilizing the service in a city where bike lanes are well thought-out and ubiquitous. However, I sympathize with the regulators, because it seems Bird took an antagonistic approach to rolling out their service (better to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission). I think it is a real problem when aggressive tech startups don’t work with local regulators to smartly implement their services. While I can understand that the wheels of government often move slowly (if at all), laws and regulations are in place for a reason and have developed over time to address the safety and access needs of our communities. It is brazen (borderline arrogant) for some of these companies to flout laws in the name of progress then rely on public support to save them. It will be interesting to see how these “dockless” services roll out across the country and what steps local regulators take to ensure community safety and ADA access on sidewalks.
No problem, Pat. I’ve been wondering for some time about what will happen with these dockless services. While it is convenient to not have to dock bike/scooter on at a designated area, I think users forget to take care of these items and are somewhat inconsiderate of others. I remember at the beginning of the year when we first got the Limebikes. At first, I thought it was a great idea. Not only does it provide an opportunity for students without cars to get from point A to point B, it also gives us a cleaner transportation option. I quickly noticed, though, how reckless some users could be with the Limebikes. They leave them all over the place and block the sidewalks; one time I saw one in the dumpster at my apartment (this is why we can’t have nice things)!