Electric Scooters in Austin

[Deej 76882]

Downtown Austin is extremely walkable. Just a bunch of lazy fuckers.

[mycox 582]

They serve a purpose. I wouldn't want to walk from East Austin into downtown next month.

[Bateshorn 9928]

They are also everywhere in DC.  It's annoying, but you learn to live with it.  I won't make room for they, at all, when walking on the side walk.  I had a guy who fell off a curb and banged up his shoulder pretty good because he made some assumptions about pedestrians making way the other day. 

[Fudge Nuggets 19211]

On 5/4/2019 at 5:07 PM, HoustonHorn said:

While annoying, this may be Darwin's greatest achievement and a shift to ensure the survival of humans as a species. Not sure we should stop morons from killing themselves. The downfall of our society now is that we take measures to protect the dumbest of the species whereas these people did not survive and drag down the group in previous generations. I applaud the scooters and the idea of letting dumb people exterminate themselves for the greater good. At least they died while having fun whipping around at 20mph. Win-Win.

A safety guy for one of our rig contractors told me he had the hardest job in the world.  I asked him why he thought that was the case and he said "Because my job is to protect idiots from hurting and killing themselves.  Stupid people are supposed to die, I'm fighting against Darwinism."

I couldn't argue against that.

[AustinMT 952]

What do you call 1000 electric scooters at the bottom of Lady Bird Lake?

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

What do you call 1000 electric scooters at the bottom of Lady Bird Lake?

A good start?

[CooterBrown 18022]

Any possibility the scooter cos make money?

$1 to unlock and .15 a minute. A 10 minute ride is $2.50. To break even just on the $300 scooter, it’d take 120 10 minute rides. The scooter cost is probably at best 50% of the operating costs with charging payments, repair payments, etc. So, now you’re at 240 rides to break even.

I would guess the answer is no. You could probably make it work if you could eliminate scooter idle time by keeping them in high traffic areas. Since you can ride them anywhere, a huge percentage will be dumped in locations where they won’t be used for days.

[South Austin 52551]

I was in Paris last week and those fucking scooters are everywhere.

[wood 11235]

6 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

 

$1 to unlock and .15 a minute. A 10 minute ride is $2.50. To break even just on the $300 scooter, it’d take 120 10 minute rides. The scooter cost is probably at best 50% of the operating costs with charging payments, repair payments, etc. So, now you’re at 240 rides to break even.

I would guess the answer is no. You could probably make it work if you could eliminate scooter idle time by keeping them in high traffic areas. Since you can ride them anywhere, a huge percentage will be dumped in locations where they won’t be used for days.

 

Re: being left for days, they have guys that use gps to go around in the middle of the night and pick them up, charge 'em, and take them back to more desired areas. No idea if any of these operators are profitable though.

Edited May 7, 2019 by wood

[High Plains Drifter 11050]

6 hours ago, AustinMT said:

What do you call 1000 electric scooters at the bottom of Lady Bird Lake?

 

Is this a real thing? Is this actually happening?

[South Austin 52551]

7 hours ago, AustinMT said:

What do you call 1000 electric scooters at the bottom of Lady Bird Lake?

It's called Town Lake.

[AustinMT 952]

13 minutes ago, South Austin said:

It's called Town Lake.

I wish that was still the case.

[4th&Five 41575]

2 hours ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

Is this a real thing? Is this actually happening?

You're already behind on your quota!

[utee94 15842]

2 hours ago, AustinMT said:

I wish that was still the case.

It is.  I sure as hell never call it anything other than Town Lake.

[Deej 76882]

10 hours ago, AustinMT said:

What do you call 1000 electric scooters at the bottom of Lady Bird Lake?

Hopefully, structure attractive to crappie.

[Deej 76882]

3 hours ago, South Austin said:

It's called Town Lake.

Yep, and 1st Street runs alongside it.

[wood 11235]

8 Austin-based lawsuits filed against scooter companies in 6 days http://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/8-austin-based-lawsuits-filed-against-scooter-companies-in-6-days/269-c354c2dc-2cf8-4c80-a645-934f8b72cfa4