[lordofthemark]

@Steve O 191609 wrote:

These docks would not be trivial, because they need to be connected to electrical power (solar like CaBi is unlikely to provide enough to charge the scooters). And to make them really useful, there should probably be several on every block, literally thousands in the region.

https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2019/03/electric-scooters-parking-charging-docks-lime-bird-lyft-spin/584332/

[lordofthemark]

@mstone 191600 wrote:

right up until VC money stops flowing in, then they’re gone

ya know, a long time ago, I spoke to someone in VC. They gamble. Most don’t pay off. A few do, often quite big. Given how big the payback is when they hit, if they didn’t mostly miss, the thing wouldn’t be in equilibrium.

I remember the Dot com boom. Lots of failures. Lots of bankruptcies. But also, I guess, google. and a few other big hits.

The notion that because VC is involved it automatically means a concept won’t last strikes me as just as unrealistic as thinking every new concept getting VC money will succeed. In a lot of case many of the entrants will fail, but one or two WILL succeed, and make money out of their market dominance (I remember when there were so many search engines around, there was a market for meta search engines that combined results from different search engines – because like who had time to do a dozen searches on different engines that each had their own strengths?) Some concepts will go away entirely. Some will evolve.

Its dead certain that many of the escooter companies now present will go away. Its possible they all will. Its also quite possible that one or two will survive and scoop up the market. That the thing has grown so fast suggests to me that the possibility of the latter is not negligible. As a citizen and advocate, I think its at least likely enough to justify the cost of painting scooter markings in bike lanes, say.

[lordofthemark]

1. semi dockless already exists, at least for bikes. Thats what they have in Albany ny. You pay a surcharge to park it away from a docking station.
2. That wont stop complaining in Old Town, where they will hate both the stations and any undocked scooters.
3. Its not only parking. They hate seeing scooters ridden. On sidewalks, but also on streets.

[lordofthemark]

Most of the Old Town NIMBYs insisting scooters will cause the world to end were saying the same thing about docked CaBi bikes a couple of years ago. If nothing else scooters have gotten them to appreciate CaBi, at least a little. But as someone who is a CaBi member, it does have its limitations. Inconvenient stations, empty stations, dock blocked stations. And the arduous process of siting stations, made harder by some of the same NIMBYs who now decry scooters.

By the way when I have suggested that we need scooter parking corrals in Old Town, a common response is “don’t take away car parking”. Good luck getting those folks to approve of docking stations for scooters.

[lordofthemark]

@sjclaeys 191560 wrote:

So when someone riding a bicycle like Leslie gets hurt because of a scooter left in a MUP, they should just be thankful that the person who left the scooter didn’t ride Uber/Lyft? I don’t want to be part of any team that will reject any suggestions to improve public safety because they can come up with unlikely factual scenarios and won’t give consideration to anything that could impinge on scooter use. You guys sound a lot like the NRA.

I think we should improve safety on the trails, so that does not happen. We need a way to gather scooters improperly left on the bridges, MVT, etc, whether private juicers or the companies doing it. They probably need trailers pulled by ebikes to collect them – if NPS can’t see their way to legalizing even class 3 ebikes on the trails, they could grant a waiver to ones run by the scooter companies for scooter collection. They may need to do pick up on the bridges and trails cooperatively – IE not Spin collecting Spin scooters, Bird collecting Bird, etc, but they may all need to go in together. Another possibility (I am not a techie, just brainstorming) would be geofencing combined with battery charge data – so one could not take a scooter onto a bridge if one did not have the juice to get to the other side and beyond the trail.

If ebike changes can’t work, maybe the scooter companies need to pay to have someone pull a trailer with a regular bike. That will be expensive, but if its needed for safety so be it. If the scooters are profitable enough to bear the cost, fine, if not the scooter companies will have to geofence them from the bridges and trails. If that means dockless scooters play a lesser role in our multimodal future than hoped, again, so be it.

But these are ideas to address the problem, not an attempt to either discourage scooter use in general, or to punish scooter riders.

[lordofthemark]

@mstone 191535 wrote:

I’m not there, someone moves a scooter I’m done with, I get a fine…how does that in any way increase public safety?

It doesn’t but at least it punishes the scooter users, who tend to be younger than the citizenry in general, are more often POC’s, and when they are white appear to be those “hipsters” who are ruining the country.

[lordofthemark]

Just happy to see so many folks riding today, in places I don’t usually see them.

There were TWO other riders on Park Center Drive – one heading to the “midwalk” over I395, one coming back up Park Center from King. I hardly ever see other riders on Park Center.

I passed an apparent newbie commuter on 30th heading to Abingdon.

On Abingdon I saw a few kids riding to school.

The best thing though was one little girl, on her bike, waiting to cross Abingdon in the crosswalk. Car going NB stopped for her, as I (going SB) did. Instead of crossing (for whatever reason) she waved the car forward with her hand, like an experienced bike commuter. Put a smile on my face.

[lordofthemark]

@accordioneur 191482 wrote:

Love it!

The Velo Chevra has spread further still, Baruch Hashem! That’s W 10th & West Streets in Manhattan.

Where they just might run into this fanatical sect

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[lordofthemark]

@rcannon100 191481 wrote:

“Might appear” to whom?? Bitching to each other does nothing. That is exactly my point. You want change – STOP KVETCHIHNG and when you have a problem with someone, stop them, talk to them. Waiting till you can post a whitty remark on the forum is just an ego game.

…. Yiddish also allows considerable scope for complaining about the complaining of others, more often than not to the others who are doing the complaining. While answering one complaint with another is usually considered a little excessive in English, Yiddish tends to take a homeopathic approach to kvetching: like cures like and kvetch cures kvetch. The best response to a complaint is another complaint, an antiseptic counter-kvetch that makes further whining impossible for anybody but you.”
― Michael Wex, Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods

[lordofthemark]

@accordioneur 191478 wrote:

As you have astutely pointed out in the past, each fringe community has its own vocabulary, customs and traditional garb (some with actual fringes!). I’m just saying that this forum understands Rapha more than Rashi, and that most viewers of the picture you posted would enjoy it because it shows bicycle riders but would have no idea what the word “Moshiach” on the flags means.

Clearly it refers to the person who will usher in the time when there are no cars on the streets of Crown Heights.

Edit: My apologies. On closer inspection, they are on West 10th Street. The meshichist bike lobby appears to have spread from Crown Heights to Gravesend, with their message that YES, the late Chabad Rabbi was and IS the messiah, and the even more controversial message, that you CAN bike in the street for transportation

[lordofthemark]

Critical Messiah

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[lordofthemark]

@accordioneur 191416 wrote:

You do realize that 99% of the forum readers do not get your references, right? Though I must say, this is one of the rare circumstances in which I can claim to be part of “the 1%”

P.S. You mean Schneerson wasn’t … ?!

I am sorry I will try to be more clear about what “Are you okay” is referring to, in the future.

As to your other question, ever been to Crown Heights and seen all the yellow flags and bumper stickers? There is a faction that your local chabad rabbi doesn’t want you to know about, but they are seldom seen outside Brooklyn.

Ah, found something on topic. Sort of

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[lordofthemark]

@peterw_diy 191424 wrote:

Exactly. This is one of the big problems with dockless – it’s virtually impossible to hold anyone accountable for bad parking or vandalism of the devices. Thus the obstructions and short service life.

They can geofence some areas, but that is limited by the accuracy of GPS.

[lordofthemark]

@huskerdont 191383 wrote:

I’ve said this before, but this kind of trail is okay for commuters. And that’s fine. But recreational cyclists, runners, dog walkers—this is useless for them. So unless a whole lot of commuters use it, the powers that be can easily justify getting rid of it.

Seems like it would be the ideal place for pathletes – they can ride without dealing with either dog walkers and slow bike riders OR with cars.

[lordofthemark]

I really don’t think it will be that easy to get rid of it – weren’t there reasons they did not want the utility lines under a general travel lane? So I don’t think they can easily put in a general travel lane here.

I hear the concern about an underutilized facility being used in arguments against new infra – but A. IMO people on bikes over value the benefits of riding in MUPs vs in street infra, and tend to over use them. So this is less likely to be under used than even a valuable in street connection. And there really aren’t many (any?) low stress E-W routes in that area. B. The “lets not do it it won’t be used” tends to come up in debates about, again, in street infra, which tends to conflict directly with parking/or general travel lanes, not for MUPs which are usually a matter of $, and so do not stir up NIMBYISM the same way. Heck the NIMBYs are usually like “its too DANGEROUS to ride in the street, I don’t hate bikes, I bike myself, I always put my bike in the car and drive to the Mount Vernon Trail, its lovely, but I can’t bike my kids to school, ya know”

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