I cycle a lot, but bikes are a pain in that you need somewhere to park them, something to secure them to prevent them getting robbed, they're horrid in the rain and you have to ride on the road or a bike path. I can see the attraction for scooters that avoid these problems, but for the length of journey they're good for, why not just walk?
> but for the length of journey they're good for, why not just walk?
I use scooters occasionally and there is a sweet spot in the 30-60 minute walk range. A 30 minute walk turns into a ~6 minute scooter ride (assuming 3mph walking and 13mph scooter). If you're talking about roundtrip then you're saving over 45 minutes by scootering.
Sure, if it's a lazy Saturday and I'm just moseying around then I'll walk. But if I'm running to the gym and back after work then it's worth it to me to save those 45 minutes.
> The great thing about the scooter is that it isn't mine, so I don't have to worry about it getting stolen.
Except that the scooter companies can't figure this out either and are moving to a monthly rental to put the burden back on you.
> In April, it announced the launch of a more traditional rental program in San Francisco and Barcelona, in which users could pay $25 per month to rent a Xiaomi m365 from the company rather than paying per ride.
The gig economy is about externalizing all the costs, ya'know.
That's a city planning problem, though. Designated small-vehicle parking that isn't explicitly for bikes seems like a good idea to have. No reason bike storage should be bike-exclusive
The scooter companies are free to fund installation.
Honestly, I think scooter companies should be fined for any scooters left in a place that causes problems. It's essentially litter, so it should be treated as such. Scooter companies should be providing some means of locking them up securely and expect their users to use them.
I think it simply comes down to average speed. Have a click around https://app.traveltimeplatform.com/ and assume scooters are more-or-less the speed of cycles.
