I laughed… lol
I get the reason why the scooters need to yield to both pedestrians and cars. I also jog downtown and can’t tell you how many times someone coming out of a parking deck has pulled out right through the sidewalk without even checking for pedestrians.
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Hmmmm, that video is edited to the point you cannot tell if the driver just pulled out and didn’t look.
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I think this is the exit from the PNC parking deck. I believe that there is a warning bell that sounds out whenever a vehicle exits. But I have had cars pull right out in front of me at this spot while walking on the sidewalk. Some definitely do not look…
Oh, definitely. I didn’t mean in this case, I just meant I can see both sides of this in general.
The scooter hit the back of the car. It’s not like the car pulled out and ran into the scooter. Simply put, a car cannot exit a garage and be expected to successfully negotiate fast moving electric vehicles on the sidewalk. It’s usually only when one passes the building’s facade that bearings and full awareness of the surroundings can be established. It’s an urban dance of sorts.
That said, if the scooter rider didn’t feel responsible, why then would he have fled the scene?
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If he wasn’t riding on the sidewalk this wouldn’t happen. The driver is pulling onto a one-way street with traffic heading north, and probably only glanced left for slow moving foot traffic.
I wish people knew to operate these scooters like bikes and off the sidewalk.
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My brother told me that Winston Salem just got rid of the Birds. He was a big fan (I am not) so it made for some interesting conversation over Thanksgiving.
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Topics to avoid over the holidays: politics, religion, and dockless scooters.
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And apparently smoking 
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I’m sure it’ll take a new council to really bring change to scooters but here’s an op-ed from Todd O’Boyle from Lime FWIW.
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I completely agree with this article.
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Hey the scooters are fine but innovative?
Now Bird hits back.
Happy New Year. We missed you and are beyond thrilled to be back on the streets of Raleigh to help you with your transportation needs.
With the New Year comes change, and unfortunately you’ll see a new tax on your Bird rides in 2019 as a result of financial regulations passed by Raleigh City Council. Starting today, a $2 transportation fee will be added to the $1 to unlock and $0.15/min ride rate.
When Raleigh City Council passed its regulations, Bird had two options: abandon the community we’ve had the honor to serve and focus on more business-friendly cities, or stay and fight for riders like you who want transportation alternatives. To us, the decision was an easy one. We decided to stay and work to ensure Raleigh residents don’t have to pay a premium for environmentally friendly transportation — but we need your help.
If you dislike this tax as much as we do, please take a moment to send a personalized email to your city councilmembers asking them to remove this unreasonable tax.
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So did Raleigh tell Bird they had to triple the unlocking fee or did Raleigh up the tax times 3?
Wasn’t the fee Raleigh imposed on the scooter companies a one time thing? Seems like Bird is being a baby and passing on onerous fees to the customers, trying to say they’re a tax.
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Something smells fishy. You would think they would keep the unlocking fee at $1 and raise the per minute fee.
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It’s just a really cynical way of doing business. They know the upfront fee will cause the most awareness and anger amongst their customer base and framing it (disingenuously) as a tax will make people even madder.
What they aren’t aware of is this will have little to no impact other than to possibly hurt their sales as people balk at the higher prices. Most of the protectionist members of the city council have constituencies that will never use the scooters, so they’re not going to hear from angry Bird customers (and if they do they probably won’t care.)
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What is unfortunate about this is, anyone who attended the City Council meeting where this was decided knows that the entire Council agreed that the fee is not intended to make a profit for the City. Everyone agreed that they only wanted to cover the City’s actual costs of administering these scooter programs. Then without any real facts, they agreed to an annual fee twice what was prelimarily agreed.
I don’t blame the scooter companies for dropping the scooters into the city without prior agreement because they should move at the speed of business, not the speed of government. But once they were present, the scooter companies should have begun working with the City to make sure that everything was going to work. It’s in their interest to keep the City’s costs down and keep the citizens safe and happy.
This $300 per scooter charge is supposedly just for the trial period, ending in the summer, after which the City is supposedly going to create a new agreement. This Bird tactic of a ‘per ride tax increase’ and “if you don’t like it tell City Council” is not a positive step.
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I agree something smells fishy. Does anyone know if Lime is adding the same “tax”? I reached out to the council about the $2 tax spin that Bird is claiming.
Taken to different ends, then you should also agree that I should be able to open any kind of business on the sidewalks and streets of Raleigh without the city’s permission.
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