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Citizen complaint of the day: Hey, Brookline, come pick up your stupid scooters
By adamg on Wed, 04/17/2019 - 2:46pm
An irate citizen files a 311 complaint about the Bird scooters from Brookline he or she says are now piling up along the Riverway in Boston, where the things are not (yet) legal:
Please impound them. They aren't even allowed to be used in Boston, only Brookline. Why does Walsh not enforce the laws with these. When lyft wasnt allowed to pick up Logan customers they put a geofence around Logan. Bird, which is owned by lyft, could do the same to not allow them to be used where they are illegal.
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Comments
Always good to have a hobby.
Always good to have a hobby.
Boston should be like other cities
Impound them and tell Bird to come get them. Since it's not worth Bird's time to actually send someone over, the city can then sell them to public.
People can buy them and with this replacement circuit board ($30) they can be liberated and ridden freely by the new owner.
If Bird is going to dump their trash on city streets, might as well let people recycle.
OR - get ahead of the curve
OR - get ahead of the curve and start your own company (and possibly create additional problems):
https://jalopnik.com/vigilantes-are-taking-scooters-off-the-streets-of-s...
Simple solution: throw them
Simple solution: throw them in the nearest dumpster.
This is just silly
Brookline starts just a half block west of the location shown by the pushpin, at St. Mary's Street.
Lyft does not own Bird
Lyft has its own scooter program, which hasn't come to our area. Lyft also owns Motivate, who operate the Blue Bikes (former Hubway) system.
Geofencing could be the problem
If they did have geofencing (not sure if Bird does, but I know I've seen Limes well into Boston), then this would just lead to the problem of the scooters stopping working at the town/city line, where they would probably be abandoned, leading to exactly the problem the 311 poster is complaining about...
Or
They can just fine people $50 if they drive them over a city line. The app could indicate when that's the case so people don't get fined unknowingly.
But Bird doesn't care. They want to milk public sidewalks for private profit. Laws and regulations be dammed.
why do you dislike these?
I welcome all additional non-polluting, non-space-hogging modes of transport to our streets. Bring them on.
Private Giveaway
I'm all about alternative form of transportation. What I'm not in favor of is towns giving up sidewalks, parks, and other public spaces to private companies to turn a private profit. If Boston got the money, not Bird, I'd be fine with them.
Bird and other companies have a bad track record. They dump their bikes and scooters onto the streets and don't come and get them when the break or when they become a problem. It's a slash a burn model. Perhaps they'll be better in Boston but I'm not holding my breath.
I've nothing against people using their own scooters.
Just what I need more
Just what I need more amateurs in my way
Bad users, mostly
I found three of them completely blocking the narrow sidewalk on my (NOT Brookline) street a few days ago. That's pretty yes-space-hogging in my book.
I personally was of a neutral
I personally was of a neutral opinion until I saw them being used in San Diego. The Lime bikes have been working great in the suburbs here, mainly because people have been responsible with them (or someone's been cleaning up the poor parking jobs) and riding them in responsible locations.
The scooters, though, are ridden everywhere - on sidewalks, through crowds, through parks... some guys were having the time of their lives speeding then jumping off curbs in Balboa Park right next to picnic tables. Sure, it's more of an operator issue rather than machine, but somehow the scooters attract a different kind of crowd. The parking issue is real, they do get tossed everywhere, much more so than the bikeshare bikes. And they look beat up like hell.
The energy for these is not
The energy for these is not fairy dust, its from power plants just like the rest of electricity used. So its not polluting at the site of the use, but in some other town. But the pollution still is released.
Plus, these are being dumped all over the place in the middle of bike paths and sidewalks. I don't pretend to understand why silicon valley is concerned that Americans get too much exercise, so are trying to move people to motorized scooters like some dystopian lardville.
Energy? Really!?
These scooters are about 1/3 kWh of battery life. Remember 75 W light bulbs? That's running one of those for 4.5 hours. Hardly an energy hog.
To be clear, the battery storage of a scooter has the energy equivalent of 0.01 gallons of gasoline and is good for about 5 miles. In other words, the scooters get roughly 500 mpg. And the emissions of the New England grid is far lower per unit energy than burning gasoline.
There are reasons to have beef with e-scooters. The energy use isn't one of them.
It is geofenced
The pushpin on the map is 50-100 feet from the town line. I'm not arguing the fence is perfectly precise, but it's there.
But what's the problem exactly? That they missed by 50'? Would the concerned citizen be any happier if the half dozen e-scooters were 100' further west in the same park on the same path? Somehow I doubt it.
Down in DC, these scooters
Down in DC, these scooters are everywhere. People ride them thru crowds, and leave them wherever they please. Definite safety issue, and they are left blocking sidewalks and in some cases streets, potentially blocking anyonein a wheelchair or otherwise mobility limited. I'd be interested to see the financial impact of added ambulance and police costs due to accidents involving scooters. In my opinion, not a great addition to cities and towns.
You mean
You assume that there are these impacts when no evidence of them exists.
Okay.
Added police and ambulance
Added police and ambulance costs won't be measured because it would have literally kill several people before it exceeded the injuries caused by broken sidewalks and potholes.
Injuries are increasing and doctors are studying
Emergency doctors and the CDC are both studying the increase in injuries. It’s mostly out west since California has even more than Brookline. But this is America so people will still be free to ignore any recommendations.
No items are allowed in the
No items are allowed in the City of Boston unless the government says so.
Why no photo?
Does the picture lack the drama in this whiny complaint?
Beats me
Maybe the kvetcher was too verklempt to snap a photo.
Why do these scooters
And rental bikes piss some people off so much?
NIMBY's
I like them there scooters
I've been seeing bird
I've been seeing bird scooters littered along the emerald necklace this past week. They're annoying to see and in the way.
Smh learn to live
Learn to live alittle , don’t stress the small things. This is a form of transportation, a cheap one at that. Helps people move around. This is BOSTON ! If they bother you , you’re probably living a miserable life already. They block sidewalks ? I know crack heads that block side walks more than these things. Get a life seriously
Don’t worry
They’re coming to Boston too. I can’t wait!