Lime Scooter Share

[Canard]

Where/how many? How much does it cost?

[KevinL]

Waterloo Park, the UW campus (mostly the west side), and the R&T Park. Probably a few dozen all told, from what I can see in the app.


$1 up front, then $1/30 minutes of use.

[goggolor]

If you download the Lime app it shows the available scooters - I'm seeing at least 20-30 throughout R&T Park and Waterloo Park, mostly along the Laurel Trail. The app says the cost is $1 to start plus 30 cents/mile.

[Canard]

Holy cow! So these guys just came in and set up this whole system in like 2 days??

That's pretty awesome. I hope it goes well!

There goes my dream of a trackless PRT as a circulator for R+T park....

[KevinL]

[danbrotherston]

Waterloo Park, the UW campus (mostly the west side), and the R&T Park. Probably a few dozen all told, from what I can see in the app.


$1 up front, then $1/30 minutes of use.

West side of UW Campus?  Where?  That's outside their zone.  UW Campus isn't even part of the pilot, it is constrained to the Laurel trail through campus from Waterloo Park to the R&T Park and then within the R&T Park.

[KevinL]

They seem to have scattered beyond that to some degree already.

[danbrotherston]

They seem to have scattered beyond that to some degree already.

Bahaha...

Oh boy.  I'm not saying this is a problem, but this was DropBike's objection.  They said the pilot area is small, but its silly to believe the scooters will stay there.

Lime claimed it would be no problem.

I kinda like DropBike better than Lime to start with they were strongly focused on sustainability and avoiding problems we see with dockless bike shares, so I do find a bit of vindication and pleasure in this.

Edit: So far not impressed with the Lime app. Repeatedly hung on the setup screen, took me several tries to get past it, and now I'm told I have a great starting promotion which saves me...$0 off a ride.

Edit 2: They also seem to be trying a bit too hard to sell me things, like everything is a promotion or a referral bonus. Maybe I'm just too used to public transit as a service instead of a product (and Greyhound who seems to have little interest in growing ).

Further, their geofencing seems to have some issues, I'm seeing polygons somewhat randomly on the map, all appearing unserviced. There is also no map legend, you have to click on squares to find out what they are. Finally, there is apparently a difference between "un-serviced" areas and "forbidden" areas...something that wasn't entirely clear in the meeting. It seems there are a few forbidden areas, where you'll be fined for repeated violations. Some of the forbidden areas make sense, like University and Columbia trail intersections...some don't...a random triangle in the middle of campus...where you're not supposed go in the first place.

Edit 3: Okay geofencing is definitely screwy, basically everywhere including the actual pilot area is marked as "unserviced" when you tap on it. This was apparently a new thing for them...

[Canard]

Looking forward to giving these a try this weekend sometime!

Should we split this discussion into its own dedicated Lime thread? (they’re not bicycles)

[danbrotherston]

Definitely a good idea but should it be "shared hire services" or scooters.

[KevinL]

[timc]

Holy cow!  So these guys just came in and set up this whole system in like 2 days??

That's pretty awesome.  I hope it goes well!

There goes my dream of a trackless PRT as a circulator for R+T park....

I still have such a dream for the six months of the year that scooters are not an option.

[danbrotherston]

So I used the Lime scooters today, so I wrote up my thoughts on the experience, the pilot, and scooters in general.

https://kissingbridgetrail.blogspot.com/...oters.html

Highlights:

* The pilot is a joke, no attempt to enforce it whatsoever.
* The scooters are slow, crawling up hills, and uncomfortable, really harsh ride, curb cuts with a 1 inch lip are really a problem.
* The app is terrible, this surprised me.
* It's a profit driven company, and it shows.
* Expensive...more than I expected.
* I hope I'm wrong, but I fear this will impact DropBike's pilot.

The good?

They're a reasonably interesting addition to the transportation system. While capacity is a problem I think they have the potential to substantially expand the reasonable last mile range of transit from 500 meters walking to closer to 2 km. That's pretty much the only trips they're good for.

[Pheidippides]

An interesting article about how the scooters get charged:
Reporter's notebook: A dispatch from the gig economy: One reporter's experience charging Lime scooters

[danbrotherston]

That's a great account...very detailed.

I was also quite surprised by how heavy they are...certainly no razor scooter.

It makes a certain kind of sad sense that Lime would oversupply their pit crews. It costs them nothing, and forces the "not employees" to compete for work, and ensures that most or all of their scooters get charged overnight. At what cost? I'm sure nobody is measuring that.

The "gig" economy at work.