
What It’s Like to Be Part of Bird’s Scooter-Charging Workforce in Atlanta - nicpottier
https://moguldom.com/148419/birds-contract-scooter-charging-workforce-in-atlanta/
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ddtaylor
This website has a lot of attention grabbing popups =( It's pretty irritating
to be reading an article and get interrupted.

> in other Bird-seeded cities, muggers have followed chargers heading into
> less-populated areas. Some chargers reported being victims of theft

Reminds me of Craigslist scams. The solution for CL scams was to only meet in
public/safe areas, what is the solution for these muggers? Send a officer
sometimes to sting sketchy bait scooters?

~~~
jpopesculian
The original hypepotamus article is a lot more user friendly. Not to mention
they're a pretty good resource for startup news in Atlanta.
[https://hypepotamus.com/news/perspective-bird-chargers-
atlan...](https://hypepotamus.com/news/perspective-bird-chargers-atlanta/)

~~~
ddtaylor
Ah, I didn't see this was a cross-post. Thanks!

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telesilla
I wish Mexico City's Mobike[1] had someone running around at night finding
bikes - I swear, every day there are less and less on the streets. I've given
up even bothering to look for any near me and have gone back to walking to the
nearest ecobici stand or calling an uber.

[1] [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-crime-
mobike/bike-...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-crime-mobike/bike-
theft-puts-the-brakes-on-chinas-mobike-in-mexico-city-idUSKCN1IX381?il=0)

"Mobike, which recently changed hands for $2.7 billion, equips its bicycles
with an electronic alarm that alerts the company when one of them leaves its
operating zone."

Yeah that doesn't work - I always rode one to neighbouring areas without even
thinking about it, and there is no disincentive. Reporting a bike that says
it's on the street, but is actually in someone's yard behind a fence, takes 3
days to get a response in the hope that the bad actor gets their account
revoked.

~~~
_rpd
I gave up on car2go for similar reasons. On the rare occasion that I could
actually find the car I'd reserved, it was parked in private parking. There
were allegedly punishments for doing this, but they never seemed to make the
practice any less common.

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sandworm101
What i do not understand is how these collectors are expected to enter non-
public areas to retrieve company property. Railway tracks? Id punish the
person who left it there. The rule should be that you leave it in a safe
public place. Then again, leave anything in public place for too long and you
should be charged with littering. Seeing these things lying around waiting to
be picked up is depressing. I wish i could just leave my stuff in the city
park and pick it up a few days later.

~~~
Symbiote
> I wish i could just leave my stuff in the city park and pick it up a few
> days later.

Isn't that what on-street parking for cars is, except each car takes up 20× as
much space?

There are some bike racks near me which are positioned in what was a car
parking space, making a nice comparison.

[1] is the basic version, [2] to make a point.

[1]
[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_I4uxRsnmym8/TM5_oAi1I8I/AAAAAAAAAZ...](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_I4uxRsnmym8/TM5_oAi1I8I/AAAAAAAAAZ8/HYuAZkxTMys/s640/bicycles+is+car+parking+space.jpg)

[2] [http://mat2.materialicious.com/images/car-shaped-bike-
rack-b...](http://mat2.materialicious.com/images/car-shaped-bike-rack-by-
cyclehoop-o.jpg)

~~~
sandworm101
>> Isn't that what on-street parking for cars is, except each car takes up 20×
as much space?

No. Because cars, like bikes, are placed in designated spots. When they are
not, they are towed and their ownsers fined. Some of these scooters are just
left anywhere. Drop a bicycle in the middle of a baseball field and you'll be
ticketed for littering. Park a car on a park bench and it will be towed. But
these scooters appear in such placed regularly without consequence.

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framebit
I've seen an uptick in the city of different pedestrian-ish modes of transit:
bikes, e-bikes, skateboards, electric skateboards, unicycles (at least near
GT), roller blades, all kinds of other stuff, and now Bird scooters are part
of the mix. Anything that helps Atlantans get from here to there without a car
is a net positive in my book. The Bird scooters being electric also help
combat the downside of navigating a hilly city in the summer heat. I really
hope that Bird users can continue to be and/or learn to be good citizens:
staying off the Beltline, not ditching the scooters on train tracks or private
property, etc.

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creaghpatr
In Atlanta the scooters are only scattered throughout a small section of
Midtown, so while they are a kind of novelty in that area, I've never
encountered one outside of that 1-2 mile radius which is mostly comprised of
park and Beltline.

Does anyone in ATL know if people are using these on the Beltline? I'm almost
certain it's 'not allowed' but the beltline does make for an interesting
pairing with the scooters if it wasn't so crowded in the midtown part.

~~~
wil421
Midtown is the hotspot and unfortunetly where I commute to work. Really hope
the fad goes away. Biking is much better for you and I’m happy Atlanta is
embracing bikes. Dekalb has planned a connection between Path and the
beltline.

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wil421
I hope these go away fast. Read about them first on HN and how they were
cluttering streets in SF. Now I can see what they mean. I ride public
transport to work in Atlanta and find them all over the sidewalks in Midtown.
The past month has been much worse. They are literally laying sideways on
sidewalks blocking people.

~~~
atwebb
There's some sort of social media astroturfing going on, it's pretty obvious
b/w the more "modern" news sites (and some not) and Reddit/HN. Lots of
contentless posts or biased headlines/reviews.

~~~
str33t_punk
Is there?

All I read every where is how terrible these things are.

I like them.

Does that make me a shill?

~~~
atwebb
It doesn't but the news seems disproportional to the usage, maybe this is the
first sign I'm not longer with it.

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TheBeardKing
The Atlantic did a good article about this a few weeks ago:
[https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/05/charg...](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/05/charging-
electric-scooters-is-a-cutthroat-business/560747/)

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lainga
>“It’s pretty funny — there’s a place where someone keeps putting them on
train tracks, so there’s like 20 on these random train tracks,” [Shahid] says.

Should put 20 on the tracks and one neatly parked off to the side, so the
chargers take the one with least risk. It doesn't look like they're paid more
to retrieve scooters in dangerous locations.

~~~
wyldfire
I'm a little puzzled about why Shahid thinks this is 'funny', as it seems
pretty obnoxious. The danger posed is not limited to Shahid but also the
trains, their operators and passengers/freight.

But I'm also puzzled by your comment. Why should anyone put any of them on the
tracks?

~~~
lainga
Hooliganism, vice and moral deficiency. I'm approaching this from the bad
user's point of view.

~~~
wyldfire
Ok, I see. I think your "bad user" model is inconsistent -- they probably care
no more for Shahid and his peers than they do for the lives and property
related to the railroad.

~~~
lainga
It's not about Shahid's well-being, but giving him the choice of taking an
easier scooter for the same payout and leaving the hooligan's track-
obstructing scooters alone.

