Lime Scooter Share

[danbrotherston]

I love these scooters, but I sure dislike some of their users.

Today while heading for lunch I passed one parked in the middle of the sidewalk on Columbia at Regina, then on my way back I passed a (presumably) student riding one south from Columbia on Albert street.  Way outside of the pilot zone in both cases!

I know from experience that these things slow down quite a bit when they think you're out of the pilot zone due to bad GPS tracking, so presumably when you're actually outside of the pilot zone it would be the same deal.  Apparently however that's not enough to stop these clueless users.  I think they should de-power the scooters altogether if they're more than a block outside the zone, and straight up lock their wheels the moment they stop more than a block outside of the pilot zone.  That or at least levy a penalty charge for parking them more than a block outside the zone, with temporary account suspensions for habitual offenders.  Just turning down the power clearly isn't enough of a deterrent. 

So I don't think that taking a scooter outside of the arbitrary pilot zone would make me dislike the rider in any way.  If you're testing a transportation system, to the user, the pilot area seems like a ridiculous setup, I'm not going to fault anyone for acting naturally.

I also fully believe that this is not only okay with, but perhaps intended by the company and probably at least some of the city government and council.

That being said, I absolutely do dislike many of the scooter riders, just as I dislike many cyclists, and also many car drivers...the difference being I'm annoyed at bad scooter riders, and I'm imperiled by bad drivers....well, I guess I'm preaching to the choir.

But it really doesn't bother me when the scooters are outside the zone...it's pretty natural...I figure you might as well be complaining about people walking on the natural desire line across the grass.