I imagine that they’d be better taken care of, and not strewn about everywhere, if they were personal vehicles. It seems that we only care about our own stuff in this country and not the common good.
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Once again, CC missed the boat.
Convenience is fairly subjective, so this factor will differ for everyone. Unfortunately, it seems like it means door to door for many people. We see this most obviously with people complaining about not being able to park right in front of their downtown destination and therefore kvetching that there’s not enough parking downtown.
Citrix Cycles has docks on Fayetteville and Glenwood, but I’d think the scooters would probably have more hubs than the bikes because they’re smaller. Maybe it will be a complete non-issue?
Also, what if we hadn’t experienced the scooters as a free-for-all that allowed us to feel entitled to door-to-door service? I wonder how that would change the way we thought about this concept.
Just thinking out loud.
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A glimpse into our future. @OakCityKarla is in Atlanta and spotted these.
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Gotta love the giant white sticker warning not to ride on the sidewalks. I’m sure riders pay attention 
Meanwhile, in Nashville, the mayor is scrapping their scooter plan and wants to start over - they currently have seven companies operating and he wants to reduce it to one or two:
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Bird and Lime will officially be removed Wednesday with only Citrix bikes remaining on Thursday as the only pay to ride rentals available. Gotcha says they don’t have an exact start date but did say they plan on eventually bringing the three wheeled “trike” which looks like a lot of fun to drive.
I hope they bring this car/golf kart thing too
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Interesting about the city picking up remaining scooters by Thursday, thanks for sharing. Does anyone have experience with Bird in requesting back an account balance?
A few months ago the app auto-drafted $10, I took one ride and there’s about $5 remaining. I’m not too worried about $5 but it’s more about Bird not deserving to keep my money. They were also pretty misleading about the auto-draft in the first place.
I’d imagine there are a lot of people in Raleigh in a similar situation who have money sitting with Bird.
EDIT: Bird was very responsive and credited my account balance in about 3 minutes.
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It wouldn’t surprise me if Bird just abandoned the scooters. Some of the ones that I’ve seen recently are pretty banged up. Their refurbish cost and process is probably either too immature or expensive to implement.
Anyone know what makes Gotcha a better company for the city to work with? Are they more responsive and more ‘rule-driven’? Or did they just give the city the best deal?
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They play by the rules. That probably makes CC happy.
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It is notable that Lime will continue to offer service at North Carolina State University as per their contract with the school. While the intention is for the vehicles to only be used on campus, there will likely be no limitations as to where they can be used at first. From what I understand, NCSU Transportation and Lime are aware of the issues this may cause and are considering steps to limit or discourage use away from campus.
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Yeah, good luck controlling that!
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So, a peaceful morning then?
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Lot of calories being burned DTR this morning. I’m concerned for our collective health.
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150 Gotcha scooters dropping in this week.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/wake-county/article233438507.html
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Well that should be enough for Fayetteville St.
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Saw some people on Gotchas this morning and they said they worked for the company. Invited me to come check them out next to the YMCA downtown.
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^interesting OpEd.
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Study from NC State:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2da8/pdf?fbclid=IwAR1Ndh5f8JLnC3RrIDnZcoMPyW0wSD1l8xVUU6xaNuW5z66jU4FduaazgjI
When e-scooter usage replaces average personal automobile
travel, we nearly universally realize a net reduction in environmental impacts.
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