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Charlotte Bike / Scooter Sharing


kermit

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On 6/1/2019 at 7:07 AM, Niner National said:

I bought a swagtron scooter that looks like the birds for $250. I have about 120 miles on it so far and seems to have no issues. Unless you just don't want to take a scooter into your workplace its a good option for someone commuting the distance you are going.

Is yours still holding up well? Which model did you get? Thanks!

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21 hours ago, Mgelbach said:

Didn't they pull the bikes because no one rode them as soon as the scooters were released?

I ended up buying my own scooter as well after realizing how much they cost and I'm substantially less sweaty getting to work in the mornings.

How/where do you store it after arriving at work?

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8 hours ago, Matthew.Brendan said:

How/where do you store it after arriving at work?

I just park it out of the way by the front door, there's only about 13 people where I work and no one minds it. Haven't taken it grocery shopping or to a restaurant yet though.

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9 hours ago, Matthew.Brendan said:

How/where do you store it after arriving at work?

I am looking at the fold-up kind, so it becomes like rolling luggage.

2 hours ago, King of the Queen City said:

I have love/hate feelings with these guys. They drive by my home all the time.

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  • 2 weeks later...
2 hours ago, grodney said:

Yesterday at 6:10am I saw two different scooters in Ballantyne in the bike lane on 40mph roadways.  Both wearing all dark clothing.  Madness.

Not that different than people jogging in the bike lane in dark clothing or riding a bike in the bike lane in dark clothing. '

People don't follow best safety practices all the time.  About 9% of drivers in North Carolina self report they don't wear seat belts and are just waiting to get thrown through the windshield, break their neck, and bleed out in the road.

Drive around at night and it appears about 5% of people don't know their car has head lights or tail lights and they just cruise around in a black car with no lighting. 

Edited by CLT2014
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1 hour ago, CLT2014 said:

Not that different than people jogging in the bike lane in dark clothing or riding a bike in the bike lane in dark clothing. '

 

That's true....but I've never seen anyone jogging in the bike lane of these roads.  And bikes generally have reflectors.....not that I've seen any/many bikes at that hour, either.

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I thought we had a lot of scooters till I went to Austin... Scooters and Bikes EVERYWHERE, and they seem to be used a lot less often than in Charlotte, unless our scooter policy of trying to optimize the number actually works! But it was nice to have the JUMP bikes seemingly everywhere. I even liked them better than our old LimeBikes. Agreed, bring back bikes, or get Charlotte B-Cycle to do dockless ebikes like CitiBike provider Lyft/Motivate does.

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Did Bcycle ever expand? I know they got at least two grants to fund big expansions since they opened but I have seen any new stations other than where apartment developers bankrolled one.

seems like the might become viable with double (?) the number of stations and different pricing models.

This really is an example of why private vendors are really crappy mobility providers. All the private dockless  bikeshare disappeared after the companies decided scooters are better (and after they did heavy damage to Bcycle). Unfortunately scooters are a poor mobility option due to the 9pm cutoff.

Uber and Lyft are doing the same thing to transit. I call BS.

Edited by kermit
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1 hour ago, kermit said:

Did Bcycle ever expand? I know they got at least two grants to fund big expansions since they opened but I have seen any new stations other than where apartment developers bankrolled one.

seems like the might become viable with double (?) the number of stations and different pricing models.

This really is an example of why private vendors are really crappy mobility providers. All the private dockless  bikeshare disappeared after the companies decided scooters are better (and after they did heavy damage to Bcycle). Unfortunately scooters are a poor mobility option due to the 9pm cutoff.

Uber and Lyft are doing the same thing to transit. I call BS.

I don't think they have--as far as I know--and agreed about private vendors, but they still exist in other cities, not sure if that's dictated by rules or by the market.

Would be nice to see some more beef in the bcycle system. I've not joined because the areas you can go are still quite limited. Some dockless bikes in their system would be a game changer. Are the bcycle membership/usage stats available anywhere? I've never been able to find them.

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  • 1 month later...

The price hikes pushed me away from scooters, rode for the first time in a couple of months today. Spin’s prices are back to $1 plus .16 cents a minute — so was that ultimately a 1 cent price hike?

scooters are also much scarcer these days, their was only one at East West station at 11 today and just 3 at 1. I haven’t seen any big clumps of them in a while.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

Sounds like scooter share has hit the end of the line. I have noticed a steady erosion in the number of scooters around town over the past few months and lots fewer riders. Honestly the last price hike reduced my scooter use quite a bit. Anyway.... sounds like Lime is pulling out of the Atlanta market. I am willing to bet Charlotte scooters are on borrowed time.

I will miss them

 

The Atlanta Business Journal story suggests that there were some major regulatory issues in Atlanta and that Lime is pulling out of 12 markets that it says are unprofitable (CLT is not on the list)  https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2020/01/09/lime-scooters-to-leave-atlanta-one-of-12.html

Quote

Atlanta is just one of the number of cities on the Lime chopping block. Lime sites “underperforming” as the reason for ceasing operations in 12 markets. In addition to exiting Atlanta, Lime will end operations in Phoenix, San Diego and San Antonio in the U.S. Latin America will experience the largest number of Lime exits, including the cities of Bogota, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Lima, Puerto Vallarta, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. Linz, Austria is the only European market on the exit list.

 

Meanwhile in NYC:

 

 

Edited by kermit
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I've read the average scooter lifespan was 28 days before they were too damaged and went off to the landfill. I'm guessing a lot of these companies are having major cash flow problems to keep buying more and more scooters to replace the broken ones. Winter is a big dip in riding as leisure / fun rides decline due to the cold, so the cash generated per scooters probably goes down the drain as well, but you still have the fixed cost of somebody driving around to charge them, fix them, et. 

Edited by CLT2014
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I was in Venice California in February, 2017 and Bird scooters were buzzing all around and I had photos I posted here. First mention at this site.  The wave crossed the country, other suppliers arrived, bikes declined, scooters multiplied. Then governments complained and restricted, costs increased and the wave recedes.

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