Patrick MarchandOuf, tried one of those free standing electric scooter rentals to get back to my cousins after the bsdcan tutorials and I dont understand how these companies exist. Not only is it slower than the top speeds I can get on a bike. It's also less stable, the power cuts off as soon as you're out of the predesignated service zones (nevermind that you could just be dropping something off and then turning back) and the parking requires a picture of the scooter that will keep being refused by the app if it cant understand the pic (all the while charging you by the second while you find the right angle for the picture). All this without mentioning that it's at least 3 to 4 times more expensive than the electric bike rentals (well bixi, velibre and a few others, dont know how expensive the freestanding uber ones are )
Adam Thompson@mathuin Note for next year, warn people about the scooters...
Your Grrl Friday@mathuin my objection to them is from a pedestrian perspective. They tried them a few years ago in Dallas and it was an utter shit show. My work building is in a touristy area. I had people almost run me over on a weekly basis (as they would ride them on sidewalks) and constantly have to dodge others that people had just thrown on the ground. On the sidewalks. The rental companies didn’t care about losing/replacing them, so broken ones started littering the landscape. (Aside: This also happened with rental bikes on the few decent bike trails around town.) They banned them for a few years but the companies talked the city into taking them back with restrictions that addressed those concerns. I still hate them and will never use them.
@JuliePercival In montreal we have bixi and people are forced to bring it back to predefined docking stations, so I havent seen many littering the city. There was a time where people in ottawa where throwing the free standing scooters into the canal, but I think that's calmed down now.
They handle the scooters on pavements problem by having a horn that beeps periodically and cant be turned off. They also shut the power if they detect that you're on a sidewalk.
This was my first time trying it and I'm not doing it again haha.