Bird Scooters Have Landed

[earthling]

Dunno if Lime accidentally put a test scooter in the public section of app or if rollout is about to begin. There are some Lime scooters being tested around town, likely in some kind of private section of app, by acct or separate app or something. Saw a Lime scooter parked in Southmoreland yesterday but wasn't on public app. There is still just one scooter on public app.

Checked STL on Lime app, which started with bikes a while back and added scooters a few weeks ago. Now it's mostly scooters and fewer bikes available. Looks like Lime is indeed phasing out bikes so we may not get any - or not many. Maybe outside central part of city, which is where I see more in STL.

Will be interesting to see how city will react to scooter count suddenly doubling.

[DaveKCMO]

Ha! We can all track Dave.

Interesting tidbit. My borrowed Lime wouldn't power on this morning. I called my contact and they tried to reset it remotely several times to no avail. It finally "rebooted" this evening and went through an interesting little start-up sequence I wasn't expecting. Chimes and flashing. Wasn't expecting that!

[normalthings]

Spotted in Riverside and Parkville

[DaveKCMO]

Plaza sighting:

[earthling]

Am surprised Bird doesn't place morning nests in neighborhoods with a lot of apartments like along Armour, 20s/Gilham, River Market West, deeper into Volker/Roanoke, etc. Some days they plant around Columbus Park, Quality HIll but not consistently. The NE downtown loop (View, Metropolitan/Manhattan buildings) would likely be heavy users being relatively isolated from downtown hotspots/streetcar. Maybe Lime will fill in those gaps. I can imagine why they'd avoid neighborhoods with mostly single family homes - likely get some complaints.

[DaveKCMO]

Am surprised Bird doesn't place morning nests in neighborhoods with a lot of apartments like along Armour, 20s/Gilham, River Market West, deeper into Volker/Roanoke, etc. Some days they plant around Columbus Park, Quality HIll but not consistently. The NE downtown loop (View, Metropolitan buildings) would likely be heavy users being relatively isolated from downtown hotspots/streetcar. Maybe Lime will fill in those gaps. I can imagine why they'd avoid neighborhoods with mostly single family homes - likely get some complaints.

A lot of those places don't have paved "furniture zones" and it's difficult to get a scooter to stand up in the grass.

[earthling]

^In some cases but still many places they could be planted.

[earthling]

Article on Bird mechanics, pays $15 per repair.
https://therideshareguy.com/how-to-beco ... -mechanic/

The types of repairs you will do as a Bird Mechanic depend. When I see it on the map, I have no idea what’s wrong with it. I must figure it out by inspecting it. Most common issues are flat tires, broken kickstands, brake levers, loose neck/handlebars, or adjusting the brakes.

How to plan your night as a Bird charger...
https://therideshareguy.com/bird-capture-streak/

[gfenn11]

Article on Bird mechanics, pays $15 per repair.
https://therideshareguy.com/how-to-beco ... -mechanic/

The types of repairs you will do as a Bird Mechanic depend. When I see it on the map, I have no idea what’s wrong with it. I must figure it out by inspecting it. Most common issues are flat tires, broken kickstands, brake levers, loose neck/handlebars, or adjusting the brakes.

How to plan your night as a Bird charger...
https://therideshareguy.com/bird-capture-streak/

They are changing their Mech program though from a per bird pay structure to $15/hr. I am already a Bird charger and have already been approved for Lime (with chargers and all!) so I can give more info if anyone has any specific questions.

[earthling]

Comprehensive article on current state of scooters...
https://www.vox.com/2018/8/27/17676670/ ... pin-cities

[KCPowercat]

One lonely lime showing up in west bottoms this morning.

[smh]

One lonely lime showing up in west bottoms this morning.

Did it have a DaveKCMO on board?

[scooterj]

How to plan your night as a Bird charger...
https://therideshareguy.com/bird-capture-streak/

I'm exhausted after reading this. This seems like way too much work for the payoff.

(^This of course coming from a guy who does literally weeks of prep work to plan the most efficient "local-beers-and-dive-bars" route I can take whenever I travel somewhere.)

[KCPowercat]

One lonely lime showing up in west bottoms this morning.

Did it have a DaveKCMO on board?

Still available somewhere by blip coffee.

[DaveKCMO]

It might be their new operations hub.

[beautyfromashes]

It might be their new operations hub.

Or someone went to The Ship and never made it out.

[beautyfromashes]

Not seeing a Plaza blackout area on the Bird app the last few days.

[earthling]

Yup, Plaza no longer a red zone. Will be interesting to see if they place morning nests within Plaza boundaries.

[DaveKCMO]

Big news Friday!

[TheSmokinPun]

Was in DC all week & saw scooters all over the place for the big 3 brands there. The biggest issue is teaching people the etiquette of riding these & bicycles on the streets & not the danged sidewalk. There were multiple times where my GF or I would be nearly bowled over by some tourist zooming around at high speeds on the sidewalk. Even on the National Mall, tourists were zooming in & out of others walking. It's unnerving since there are so many good bike lanes all over that city as well.

I feel like I at least see more people here taking them out on the road, makes me not duck for cover as often. Saw a few of the hubless bikes too, bit annoying when someone just leaves one covering as much of the walkable sidewalk as it can.