Bird Scooters Have Landed

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kboish
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by kboish »

I saw a scooter cruising down the bike lane on grand the other day. Wow, did that person look vulnerable.
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by mykn »

I took the grand bike lanes on sunday. I felt WAY less safe than on a bike. The scooters are much less stable than a bicycle IMO.
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by KCPowercat »

mean wrote:I don't entirely understand why these scooters are so psychologically different than bicycles. Is it just that bikes are larger and more visible? I can't imagine the threat of injury is that much greater than if you got hit on a bike.

In a perfect world we'd have protected bike lanes everywhere or we'd widen our sidewalks to accommodate "accelerated pedestrians" but there's no way we have either the money or political will to do anything that might slightly either inconvenience or even just not explicitly benefit motorists. The bike lanes we can manage to get are kind of a joke, but I guess better than nothing.
I don't understand the psychological difference either...but I feel safer on a bike in the street than a scooter...by a wide margin.

Maybe just my confidence level on scooters?
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by brewcrew1000 »

KCPowercat wrote:
I don't understand the psychological difference either...but I feel safer on a bike in the street than a scooter...by a wide margin.

Maybe just my confidence level on scooters?
You know you can just use your feet on the scooters and do it manually if you don't like the electric part of the scooter
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by KCPowercat »

I love that part....more just confidence in balancing....

Overall just feel more exposed on a scooter on the street with cars. Bike lane (haven't tried) I could see being very enjoyable....but until we get a real network of them....not really viable.
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by earthling »

I don't feel comfortable even biking down Grand or Main, just use Walnut. Most E/W streets aren't too bad except the faster moving like SW Blvd dumping into 19th, 13th and Loop exits.
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by benjaminkelley »

earthling wrote:I don't feel comfortable even biking down Grand or Main, just use Walnut. Most E/W streets aren't too bad except the faster moving like SW Blvd dumping into 19th, 13th and Loop exits.
Sort of offtopic of the thread but, I feel confident biking down Grand and Main, but prefer to use Walnut.
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by earthling »

Bird started in downtown STL today. Looks like up to 100 as well. The Arch area is marked as a red no ride zone.

Someone asked how to view scooters in other Bird cities. I use 'FakeGPS' on Android, which allows setting GPS anywhere and then tell Bird app to center on GPS.
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DaveKCMO
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by DaveKCMO »

You can also use the Transit app. Here's a view of Birds in Santa Monica (their home city) of that app:

Image
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KCPowercat
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by KCPowercat »

Where are these ree no ride maps?
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by earthling »

^It's on the Bird app for some cities. Austin has red zone in the Capitol area, STL on the Arch grounds, other cities have red zones too.
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by earthling »

There are now over 100 scooters in service. Didn't count but the map shows 'over 100' for the first time, looks to be at least 120 or so guesstimating could be higher. But it's more added downtown, not Midtown/Plaza. Heaviest concentration of morning dropoff nests appears to still be central CBD/Loop. Would be nice if more distributed.
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by KCPowercat »

Yeah they really dumped them this morning....I assume Friday to Sunday is pretty high usage at least at the beginning as people use them more for novelty at first.
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by earthling »

Will be interesting to see if novelty wears off but it was clear last weekend had far higher ridership than weekdays. Given there's always an influx of new people on weekends and streetcar activity also highest on weekends, the scooter ridership could sustain weekends. Seems that scooter ridership will complement/correlate with streetcar ridership rather than compete - too early to tell though.

They should drop more off in RM Sat/Sun mornings if not everyday. Will Midtown see expansion soon? Or maybe Lime scooters will hit Midtown?
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by taxi »

I saw one being put to the test at the Harrison St. DIY skate park yesterday. Wonder what kind of effect that has on their longevity.
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by KCPowercat »

I'd say not good Bob.
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by KCtoBrooklyn »

earthling wrote: Thu Jul 19, 2018 7:24 pm Bird started in downtown STL today.
...and they're gone. At least until they get the permitting worked out:

http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/sco ... s#stream/0

I had a bit of an annoying experience with Bird yesterday evening. Going from River Market to East Crossroads, the battery died around the Garment District, even though the app said it still had 28%. No biggie, there was another scooter 1 block away - but when I got there, someone else was unlocking it. Next scooter was 2-3 blocks and when I got there, I couldn't find it. Another scooter 2-3 more blocks and I couldn't find that one either. At that point, I think my app may have not been properly updating scooter locations. I ended up just walking the rest of the way.

I'm glad to see more scooters have been added - they are definitely needed. I saw quite a few in use yesterday (more being used than sitting around). But I wonder why they have left the nests so concentrated in a small area. Even if they want to stay in the Downtown area, I wonder why they didn't spread them out a bit.

I will be curious to see Lime's deployment strategy. If Bird hasn't expanded to Midtown/Plaza/UMKC by that time, I think it would be smart for Lime to target those areas.
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by DaveKCMO »

Here's the KCMO resolution establishing a temporary framework for dockless providers until a pilot program is set up: http://cityclerk.kcmo.org/liveweb/Docum ... qLIPDEZZ8W

It passed unanimously.

TL;DR Each vendor will need a business license and interim operating agreement with the city. Riders need to follow existing rules for bikes, for now (no riding on sidewalks in business districts, honor all traffic control, helmet not required).
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by KCPowercat »

Can someone define a business district for me....crossroads? Only definition I can find in Missouri statues is for "central business district" which doesn't seem to fit the spirit of what the bike law says.

Another edit...okay the 300.010 defines it (which is where the bike laws are) as within any 600 feet of a highway (?) Where buildings are in use which occupy at least 300 feet of frontage on one or both sides of highway....wtf. why the heck we defining business districts based on highways....you can't apply this to cities.

Seems like a sensible approach ...being friendly like this to new industry can only help us as a city IMO
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Re: Bird Scooters Have Landed

Post by earthling »

^KC wants to become a 'living lab' for things like this so makes sense to be more lenient at least as pilots and trials. The sidewalk rules are too ambiguous though. Main St has most foot traffic and narrow sidewalks and streetcar tracks are a hazard for those who struggle to control scooter. At a minimum Main through CBD/Xroads should probably be red zoned (allow crossing). Even if not enforced, the red zone on map should discourage using Main. Is easy enough to hop over to Walnut.

More on Bird pulling out of STL for now...
https://www.stltoday.com/business/local ... 9a35b.html
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