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During my recent visit to Sweden, I was shocked to see LIME Scooters just everywhere in town. Well, not just LIME but a bunch of other brands as well. But not everyone in Gothenburg seemed pleased with these things.
There are canals all through the downtown area and it seems that folks are tossing these scooters (and bikes) into the water. We saw one man so upset over these scooters that he kicked one as he walked by and then tossed a glass bottle at it (he was rather drunk it seemed).
I have still never tried these myself but on a recent reader BBQ “meat-up” in Austin a number of folks tried them and said they had a blast scooting around town.
I did download the LIME app and it is interesting. It shows you where you can find (via GPS) both LIME bikes as well as scooters near you as well as how charged and how far they can take you.
I am clearly a huge fan of UBER and LYFT. They have changed the way I travel and while I still use other services like GroundLink and WelcomePickups I can not even think of travel without ride share cars. As to ride share bikes and scooters, I am still not sold on the concept.
I guess I am fishing for feedback today. Are you a fan of these? Are they in your home town? Have you used them? Do you mind them or find them a nuisance that clutters up your city? Do you think they are safe for riders or the public? You tell me! – René
Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
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I am in Oslo now and am blown away by the number people using scooters. They ride them everywhere. They ride on the sidewalks and the streets. They ride FAST. It seems these scooters go faster than the ones in Atlanta. And people leave them everywhere – even on their side in the middle of the city street. I think a major problem is that scooters came out of nowhere and there are NO RULES as far as I can see. E.R. docs tell me that injuries from scooters are skyrocketed. No one wears helmets here in Oslo.
First of all, I like these scooters so much that I bought one for myself.
That said, they are a complete nuisance. I live in Atlanta, GA, and these things litter downtown, Midtown, and Buckhead. They are complete eyesores. You see them laying on the ground, in people’s yards, toppled over on the sidewalks, and in, yes, LIME trees.
Uber, Lyft, Lime, Bird, and others care only that they are making money off of these things. They have no concern whatsoever that these scooters are making our cities look like junkyards.
“Use our scooters. When you’re done with them, chuck ’em wherever you like. As long as you pay us, we don’t care how we’re making your city look!”
+1 for irritated with how ugly they are making ATL. I don’t know the answer but it starts with changing the “rule” that you can leave them any dang place you want.
I’ve used Bird in San Francisco, and did find it fun. But I agree they cause many problems on sidewalks. Also, a big question for me is whether the companies can line up enough self-contractors to drive around, find scooters, pick them up, recharge them back home, and replace them. One more piece in the gig economy. So far it’s working, but a big question in my mind if that will continue.
I live in San Diego, Mission Beach, and they are the worst. We have over 200 of scooters and bikes lined up every morning. then in the afternoon they are strewn everywhere. Besides that our city council has done nothing to stop the speeding, double riding, children under 18,etc. Going 15-20 MPH on our board walk is very dangerous. AS to 1500 per year, San Diego gets that on its own. Probably 5 a day!
I have used them, I have enjoyed using them. Even without the required helmet or knee/elbow pads or bubble wrap as demanded by a lot of the weenies out there.
With that being said, I live in the PDX area, where the police are afraid to engage even the smallest infraction for fear of being accused of abusing somebody. So the scooters run rampant. You are supposed to use them like you would a bike. That means on the streets or designated bike lanes. Yet people still use them on the sidewalk (because they are scared to be in the street) and they cause people to scatter as they come motoring through.
We should be thoroughly policing the idiots of the world to make everybody’s lives much better.
Case in point http://scootersintheriverpdx.com/ It hasn’t been updated since the scooters have returned this year.
Have not seen them in towns I visit but it can’t be worse than Vietnam! Talk about lots of scooters( some with whole families on them).and faster than fast!
Guilty as charged – used them and they were fun but I could totally see that they can be very dangerous. You need some good balance and coordination when going fast. The app worked well and at the end of the ride I pretended to be an adult and put them back in proper place on the kickstand.
In the limited time we had at our destination we would not have covered all the area we covered on foot and a taxi or Uber was not practical. Lime scooters made it EASIER to see the area and made it FUN but again we were mostly acting like adults and obeying the laws and rules.
1. M]any people are inconsiderate and ride them on sidewalks causing a hazard to pedestrians.
2. Riders leave the scooters on sidewalks and in the street causing hazard to peds and vehicles
3. Riders do not follow traffic rules
Therefore these should be banned
I recently tried a Lime scooter for the first time in Tel Aviv. Initially the ride seemed very scary, but after about 5 minutes it felt second-nature. It really opened the city up for exploration! I spent two hours gallivanting around, down the entire beachside boardwark area and back up through the various small neighborhoods.
Being able to stop exactly where I wanted to, when I wanted to was a big plus. I was able to get pictures that you couldn’t capture from a moving bus. I zipped down crowded one-way streets with ease. The drivers were pretty respectful and seemed used to navigating around them. It also helped that the speed limits were much lower than what you find here in the US.