Bird is the enabler, but the people are really what will be the reason behind a ban if it happens. The most important regulation, in my opinion is already in place, just not enforced. Don’t ride on sidewalks! I’d prefer that enforcement be more lax to be a judgement call for crowded sidewalks like those around Fayetteville especially during a festival, but that’s what’s giving the program the worse rap right now. There is certainly regulation that would help with placement and possible future law enforcement, but we aren’t enforcing the laws we have so what do more rules really matter?
Also, if you want to help spread the word, I tweeted about this and tried to represent both sides of encouraging adoption of last-mile ride share as well as a PSA. Feel free to share if you desire: https://twitter.com/xtremetoonz/status/1036543633699360768
Did not say limit them, people can ride the toys, but get off the sidewalk.
Just don’t act like immature child, but most on these lazy person toys do.
My youngest daughters are older teens, very smart, mature and open minded, but they even laughed at mid/late 20’s/ early 30’s people being immature on these scooters, anyone on a scooter needs to look at themselves, not the person on foot who is on their side of the sidewalk and has to brush up against a wall or fall into traffic for someone on a scooter who has no manners or respect for others, just as they say, thise are the ones who think they are priveledged and have not earned it.
It sounds like you don’t like seeing other people enjoying themselves. Yes, these scooters may require some rules, but the only folks I notice complaining are NIMBY Cousins! Hominems and personal attacks are uncalled for.
Yeah, I’m gonna continue to ride on the sidewalk, especially where there are no bike lanes. I’m not getting run over by a car to please anyone else lol.
As long as you are considerate, and don’t expect walkers to get out of YOUR way, then I’m good. The problem is that consideration like that is few and far between in actual practice.
Sorry about the all caps on your, but I really wanted to emphasize the priority use of sidewalks.
When people are done with the scooters, how long does it take for them to be picked up? I noticed a few on Oberlin rd that appeared to be laying in people’s front yards. There could be issues with people leaving them on others property.
Driving to church down Ridge Road yesterday morning, I noticed at least a dozen Bird scooters and a lime bike littering the sidewalk. I am all for transit options, but IMO, these “dockless” options are just becoming urban garbage in the way of pedestrians. I may be more on board if these devices were “parked/docked” in strategic locations, but having them just left on the sidewalk in random places is NOT a good thing.
Just wait until someone gets hurt tripping over one of these things that was left in the way and watch the lawsuits fly… It will happen.
There are all sorts of possible issues that could arise from these dockless systems, especially the scooters. For the most part, I am not seeing these riders regularly obeying traffic signals and signs. I’m seeing them race through sidewalks where pedestrians are present, and I’m seeing them do both of the above in groups. One can imagine a tragic accident where a car is involved. I can imagine fights on the sidewalk between walkers and riders. Unfortunately, I can even imagine someone walking brandishing a gun because they get pissed off one too many times.
Time will tell.
It’s terribly unfair for for-profit businesses just dump a system like Bird onto a city without preparing for the infrastructure and/or rules to support it. It puts the city and its citizens in an uncomfortable position with riders pointing to detractors as killing their joy, while detractors pointing their fingers at riders as being disrespectful, and everyone looking to the city to solve the problem, that they didn’t ask for, to fix it immediately.
Can you imagine if Bird asked permission in any of the cities before launching? They’d never get off the ground. We elect and/or hire people to deal with this kind of stuff so I don’t think it’s unfair to the city. It’s their job.
Scooters (at least Bird, Lime is likely to be the same policy) are picked up when the battery is 15% or less or after 9p each night. They are typically put out in their “nests” between 4-7a each morning. There can be exceptions, like if a Bird is marked as damaged and is placed on the mechanic’s map, it will be picked up when they get to it and some chargers may not get their scooters out until after 7 jeopardizing a full pay out.
That would never happen. The sun will blowup and the Earth turn to dust before the City of Raleigh would approve an electric scooter system after 2.3 billion years of city ‘studies’ and research.
@Straggler I totally agree. While I don’t agree with most riders’ inability to exercise even the slightest respect for others sharing the road/sidewalk, can you imagine a for-profit business plan that relies on a city’s cooperation to pass policy and establish infrastructure? It may be the “right” way to go, but it likely wouldn’t happen if that were the only route to establishing the program.
If I remember correctly, Bird has offered to fund bike lanes in some cities. Rather than banning dockless vehicles, Raleigh should be all over regulations and agreements that bring in extra funding and please both riders and pedestrians.
It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission when it come to state. Local and federal beaurucracy. Unless your a former politician or family member of one you will have a tough time.
I would expect people to treat someone on a scooter the same as they do a jogger.
I get out of joggers and people on scooters’ way for the same reason I do most things: enlightened self interest. In other words, I don’t want to get run over.
Lime-S scooters cost $1 to unlock and 15 cents per minute of riding. For more on Lime’s electric scooters, you can watch our Lime-S safety video here (a How-To and scooter safety video), visit our Lime-S page here and find Lime-S photos here (also attached).
To celebrate the launch, new riders can use the code “LIMERALEIGH” for $1 off the first 3 rides to test the scooters out themselves!
In addition, to make sure our scooters are parked responsibly throughout Raleigh and North Carolina State University, we are collecting them on a daily basis, charging them overnight and redistributing them the next day in approved areas so that they are fully charged, maintained, and ready to be ridden every morning. This also helps us ensure they are stood upright and parked responsibly so that they do not block pedestrian right-of-way or obstruct any sidewalks or roadways.
With the addition of Lime-S, North Carolina State University will become the first university campus to carry all three transportation options offered by Lime: pedal bikes, e-bikes and e-scooters.
Total conspiracy theory on my part but found it to be very interesting timing that the Bird app was all messed up last night from about 5-8. No scooters were displaying and the ones I happened across said they were “In service” when I tried to unlock them. Did Lime somehow work to crash the app and/or have people go around and try to unlock a bunch of Birds for a few hours and just eat the cost? A great way to drive people to their product on the day it rolled out, right? Anyone who was out and about last night should be able to verify my take that there were Lime scooters everywhere but hardly any Birds in sight. #scooterwars
