Gave Bird a try to get from The Garneau to downtown. 11 minutes, $5. Slower than a bike but much faster than walking. Price wasn't that great, but it was more convenient than transit, and was pretty fun to ride.
Price is probably more worthwhile for longer trips, since it's $1.15 to start then 35¢ per minute to ride.
Something about these scooters just, rubs me the wrong way. I was visiting downtown Calgary on the way home from a camping trip recently, and I kid you not, at least TEN of these things were being ridden on every single block. On Stephen Avenue it was the worst, with multiple groups of people (usually teenagers) zooming by on these and nearly running into us doing their tricks I just have so many questions. How do these things recharge? How do you locate them? What happens if they run out of power mid ride and you are stranded? Are there any theft prevention measures? Just seems like an all around lousy and half-baked idea for a new type of ride share system.
I would've loved to see a Bike Share company spring up here in the city, as it is something that works great in other cities, needs no energy besides the power of the human body, and would give much more use to all the bike lanes, as well. My hot take: Bike Share: Sashay, You Stay. Scooter Share: Sashay AWAY (from my city)
@Platinum107 Bird and Lime contract out people to come by every night and charge the scooters. Each scooter has a GPS tracker so they know where the scooters are.
On a side note I was driving down Saskatchewan drive and saw a man drive a scooter completely off the side of the cliff into a bush. When he got out of the bush the scooter was not in the best shape.
I guess that he might have been testing the concept of "two birds in the bush", finding out that one damaged scooter is not worth the experiment even if it belongs to an insured company. @KyleBlanchett did you offer him a hand or at least some sage advice re skydiving on a scooter?
I was talking with a Croatian friend who visited the home country recently, and he said that the scooter craze there is at least 3x as worse as it is here. Literally streets packed with rows of scooters.
I've thought about it more, and I believe that these scooters are a good-minded idea that have the potential to help alleviate traffic and reduce emissions, but their execution definitely needs to be rethought. there are just too many variables, in my opinion.
@archited I was unfortunately late for a meeting because of it! I just couldn't stop watching this guy trying to climb out of this bush with a mangled scooter.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on April 16 city council decided electric scooters will not be allowed back on Edmonton streets for the foreseeable future.
Edmonton will become the first Canadian city to welcome back Lime scooters in 2021, reports Global News. The company plans to relaunch 100 e-scooters on Wednesday afternoon. Edmontonians took nearly 500,000 trips with Lime last year.
I quite enjoy them but really think owning them is more sensible. I'm borrowing a friends while working in Vancouver this week and I ride it over the Granville bridge each day. They're like 1200 dollars to own and super fun. Smaller and more portable than a bike, making them a great option to combine with lrt use. Less active which is too bad. Safe as theyre low to ground and you're in standing position compared to a bike.
I quite enjoy them but really think owning them is more sensible. I'm borrowing a friends while working in Vancouver this week and I ride it over the Granville bridge each day. They're like 1200 dollars to own and super fun. Smaller and more portable than a bike, making them a great option to combine with lrt use. Less active which is too bad. Safe as theyre low to ground and you're in standing position compared to a bike.
At that price one could get a decent new bike too, but I guess it depends what you're looking for in terms of personal mobility. Glad to see there are more options nowadays other than just Norco bikes,m Razor scooters and Segways!
I quite enjoy them but really think owning them is more sensible. I'm borrowing a friends while working in Vancouver this week and I ride it over the Granville bridge each day. They're like 1200 dollars to own and super fun. Smaller and more portable than a bike, making them a great option to combine with lrt use. Less active which is too bad. Safe as theyre low to ground and you're in standing position compared to a bike.
I was thinking about purchasing one as well. Is there an issue of theft with them? Do you have to lock them up like a bicycle when going into shops and such?
It still bothers me that we have the bike paths on secondary streets, one or two blocks away from where the businesses are and from where people want to be walking/biking/riding scooters. It really doesn't make any sense.
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