
Uber's chief of scooters, bikes to depart - hhs
https://www.axios.com/uber-executive-scooters-bikes-depart-3e0c6d41-2888-4e36-b0cc-537e28378596.html
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hoelle
E-scootering around Berlin as a tourist this past fall was incredibly fun.
Fast, cheap, and the lack of responsibility to lock up a bike or find a
specific bike rental return spot is very freeing. It's such an effective way
to explore cities that suit it, that I'll now factor their availability into
vacation travel planning.

So I'll be sad if these die off. I just learned how amazing they are!

~~~
lawlorino
I've only really experienced them in Helsinki so maybe it's a different
situation than Berlin, but from a pedestrian's POV I see them pretty
negatively. Firstly, people are often just dumping them wherever they like
with no real regard, especially in the center you'll get loads of them just
scattered close together on the pavement. The city is pretty windy so I'm not
sure if that is also contributing though. Second point, and much more serious,
is that people ride them like arseholes even in pedestrian areas.

~~~
jessriedel
Bicyclist complain about how cars drive. Car driver's complain about
bicyclist. Same for pedestrians, etc. There should be reasonable rules to
reduce frictions and accidents, but "my life would be easier if people taking
other forms of transport disappeared" is not novel or constructive.

~~~
ghaff
I don't think in general pedestrians care whether or not escooters disappear.
They just don't want them on sidewalks by and large. By and large bicycles
aren't allowed on sidewalks either and cars certainly aren't so I'm not sure
why escooters would be.

~~~
ecnahc515
I’d argue it’s just that because scooters are more accessible that more people
who wouldn’t otherwise bike use them. Some of these people are also likely not
biking for reasons like safety. Bike lanes are considered very unsafe to most
people, so until we have more protected bike lanes and better culture around
non-car traffic, the problem of people using sidewalks will continue.

~~~
ghaff
I pretty much agree with that. More casual users in a lot of places who have
never ridden bikes in traffic and aren't about to start. (And scooters are
arguably even worse because of small wheels and rough roads.) So you get
people with an attitude that the scooters are there to use but riding them on
the road is a death wish. And they may even be right about the road part.

Add to that _some_ sidewalks are wide and low pedestrian traffic and aren't
really a problem given courteous users. But allow that and you get people
bombing on narrow sidewalks with more pedestrians.

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wayoutthere
This always felt like a dead-end market to me. Many cities offer bike shares
(which often run at a loss) and many of those are starting to offer battery-
powered bikes for an additional fee. Anywhere scooters are useful, they
quickly become a nuisance and regulations are imposed. It's kind of a no-win
situation for commercial operators.

It feels like the market opportunity here isn't on the branding side, but the
operations side as a white-label operator for city bike shares. As Uber is
largely a brand play, I can see why they might want to go in a different
direction.

~~~
dman
Also weather. How can you be a viable business if you have no cashflow for 4-5
months in a year?

~~~
aeturnum
There are many, many seasonal businesses. Ski resorts, for instance.

~~~
dx87
Those basically get run by a skeleton crew during the off season. My dad lived
in a town in Alaska that had skiing and hiking tourism as its primary money
maker, and he said that during the off season, it becomes a ghost town with
only things like grocery/convenience stores and gast stations being the only
places that stay running.

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davidwitt415
Food for thought: Just because e-scooters are turning out not to be a unicorn
play doesn't mean they are suddenly non-viable as a transportation or venture
option. In fact, having the gold rush leave this space could very well open it
up to practical -and sustainable- innovation and implementation.

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projektfu
It doesn't sound like she's being forced out, but they also didn't mention a
replacement. Is that the reason for all the dismal comments?

~~~
wayoutthere
Taken in the context of Uber, Lyft and Lime scaling back their markets due to
low demand, it's becoming pretty obvious that the market for this is a lot
harder and smaller than originally thought.

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linuxftw
I remember when Segways came out, and I thought "This is stupid." Outside of
airport and mall security, they are nary to be found.

When e-scooter-shares came out, I thought "This is stupid."

In the last several years, I've been to dozens of cities. Never saw anyone
taking an e-scooter.

Haven't heard anything about Uber's 'self-driving' cars recently. Another
total was of money.

~~~
mikeyouse
I think they make a ton of sense in certain areas. I was at a convention in
San Diego a little while back and e-scooters seemed like the official mode of
transit. It was a bit annoying since they were hobbled by the convention
center to a dangerously slow speed (something like 8mph when you're riding in
an unprotected bike lane) but to be able to walk out of your hotel, hop on a
scooter and take it 10 or 15 blocks to get to the convention center, then grab
another one and take it 5 blocks to lunch, then a different one to go the 20
blocks to the USS Midway all for a few dollars was awesome.

~~~
retrovm
San Diego actually passed an ordinance requiring scooters to geofence speed
limits of 8MPH in many areas. See
[https://www.kpbs.org/news/2019/jul/01/dockless-scooter-
regul...](https://www.kpbs.org/news/2019/jul/01/dockless-scooter-regulations-
take-effect-san-diego/)

It's a great idea and they should absolutely expand this regulation to cars.

~~~
mikeyouse
I think 15mph makes a lot more sense having ridden at 8mph.. the Scooter is
barely stable at that speed, but yeah limiting cars to a speed that's more
like 2-3x that rather than 5x would make the slow speed much more safe.

~~~
dickjocke
Many of the areas that were governed to 8mph were very popular boardwalks,
_after_ many people were injured and an older guy was hit and died. The
convention center is more nuanced, because lots of it is heavy traffic street.
But there is no reason a scooter needs to go even 8mph on the boardwalk, imo.
Often times people are on them in groups bombing by you, and if you're trying
to just go on a walk and enjoy the beach with kids or dogs its kind of lame.

If it's being used to commute, you can go literally 60 feet inland and go as
fast as you want.

~~~
mikeyouse
Maybe I was just in an unfortunate spot, but much of my journey from my hotel
to the convention center was limited to the low speed. Would require multi-
block detours to get to full speed. I agree the boardwalk makes sense at 8mph
(or anywhere that there's mixed pedestrian traffic), but whatever that main
road is had the restricted speeds too which felt too onerous with the much
higher speed traffic along side.

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ng7j5d9
Really disappointed to click on the article and see that her official job
title was "VP & Head of New Mobility". "Chief of Scooters" sounds way more
fun.

