It is very frustrating that, even in this otherwise-good @verge overview of the past and future of shared micromobility in the wake of Bird's bankruptcy, that there is zero mention of the completely-unresolved issue of blocking sidewalks and rendering them inaccessible. https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/21/24010902/bird-bankrupt-electric-scooter-micromobility-ridership-future
My contrarian take: It's good actually that these companies had a good multiyear run and are now flaming out. People who tried them, like them, and use them frequently will buy their own devices.
There are no shared micromobility fleets in Camberville (except public docked Bluebikes), but plenty of micromobility devices out and about, and sidewalks are still accessible. Private ownership of micromobility devices should be the policy goal.
@dx seems likely to me - no battery swapping or rebalancing operations
@bikepedantic @dx definitely operational emissions saved, the big variable is ICE car trips displaced from SMM availability. I'm skeptical that would be enough to offset operational emissions despite some dubiously head-turning survey results about trip displacement. Plus, many power users mode switching will buy their own. How do you quantify the value of the pathway from casual SMM user to individual radical mode shift? I'm not sure it's worth it to get too much in the weeds of that.
@bikepedantic @dx I will say that I've been emphasizing recently the flexibility value to the transportation system SMM provides. Important in places without docked bikeshare, especially with traditional transit struggling so much with service cuts. You can't ask someone to buy a bike/scooter if their car doesn't start at 8:20am on a beautiful May morning, but they might grab a shared one.
@alexkgellis @dx Sure. But i'm damn tired of saying that sort of stuff to people sending me pictures of people using wheelchairs who can't use the sidewalks in their communities. That's the seemingly permanent tradeoff.
@bikepedantic @dx We're taking the leap next season in Providence after a couple years tearing our hair out about this to requiring SMM to park in daylighting zone corrals in the areas with highest density of devices. If it's still a problem we could expand to citywide. Also right-sizing our total devices after a few years of fleet size inflation driven by politics instead of policy/market demand. We'll see if it works!
@alexkgellis @bikepedantic @dx I want to see Providence join BlueBikes, let people use it on both ends of the commuter rail
@DemonHusky @bikepedantic @dx I want to see that too! Let me know if you have an in with the BCBSRI execs.
@alexkgellis @bikepedantic @dx Would BCBS be who matters? I would think it would be the city first. I think most of the organization is done at the MAPC level, which Providence isn't a part of and would make things a little harder, but can't be much harder than Salem joining the system.
@DemonHusky @bikepedantic @dx Well with Bird ch11 (which will definitely not affect Spin, promise), Superpedestrian pulling out of US, and Lyft trying to get out of the biz altogether, maybe 2024 will see us scramble to not rely on fully private dockless operators anymore. Not sure we're ready to make that change without big disruption in service but this world is a rollercoaster so 🙃
@alexkgellis @bikepedantic @dx Lyft is kinda weird. My understanding is bikeshare is actually profitable for them, but like, only a little and no way to make it more so, which Wall St. doesn't like.
But if they do sell off Motivate, I'd love to see the different cities that they operate buy up Motivate and run a national non-profit bikeshare operator. It seems good to have the same hardware everywhere to save on design and get better economies of scale.
Co-sign this. Motivate actually still exists as a standalone company (Lyft spun out the boots-on-the-ground ops because they wanted to get rid of all union workers). Have them buy the former Motivate system IP, have the brilliant former NiceRide management team who know it inside and out run it.
@DemonHusky @alexkgellis @dx Baltimore made some brief exciting noise about joining Capital Bikeshare years ago, would have been exactly that awesomeness
@bikepedantic @alexkgellis @dx I have a dream that all major stops along the commuter rail and all rail-trails (looking at you Bedofrd Depot and Lynn Marketbasket) join BB
@DemonHusky @alexkgellis @dx MBTA Communities 2.0
@dx @bikepedantic as long as it’s not a low quality scooter that breaks down after a few rides and is impossible to repair then I bet that’s likely the case. Unfortunately I think a lot of those privately owned scooters are cheap and unreliable.
On the other hand dockless scooter companies usually have people in ICE vans replacing batteries, that probably undoes a lot of the benefits.
@bikepedantic what are your thoughts about mixed scooter/bike municipal share systems?
@DemonHusky no experience or observations of any
@bikepedantic I dunno if anyone’s crunched the numbers, but I wouldn’t be surprised if private ownership of micromobility is actually better from an emissions standpoint than shared fleet services, somewhat counterintuitively