Lime Scooter Share

[danbrotherston]

If I understand correctly, the scooters are to be used only on the one specific route, not other areas? How will LIME enforce this?

So far by slightly telling people. They could disable the scooters or fine your account but so far they've done very little to prevent people from taking them elsewhere. 

The signage is pretty limited even.

[Canard]

We get it Dan, you hate it.

[Spokes]

Why are they limiting where you can take them?

[Canard]

It's a pilot project

[nms]

I believe another reason why Lime may have had an advantage over any bikeshare that wanted to launch is that the scooters used by Lime are currently not covered by any provincial regulations whereas bikes (and cars) are. The province is in a "wait and see" position while the province get things organized. Presumably a pogo stick share would be just as easy to launch.

[danbrotherston]

I believe another reason why Lime may have had an advantage over any bikeshare that wanted to launch is that the scooters used by Lime are currently not covered by any provincial regulations whereas bikes (and cars) are. The province is in a "wait and see" position while the province get things organized. Presumably a pogo stick share would be just as easy to launch.

Lime and the City of Waterloo currently hold the position that the lack of provincial regulations make scooters illegal on roads.  That is one reason for the reason for the highly restricted pilot area, it is restricted to Multi-use trails which the city feels it has the right to legislate scooters as permitted, and private property, specifically that belonging to the R&T park which is also involved in the partnership.

While I doubt you'd get a ticket for bringing a scooter into a bike lane or sidewalk, the City and Lime have both declared it not allowed in the pilot.  To do otherwise would no doubt invite lawsuits.

As with most liability reducing bullshit, this is not actually enforced in practice.

[timc]

I do hope that the City is keeping an eye on these scooters and how well they do at staying inside the pilot area.

[danbrotherston]

@timc such a task was not mentioned during the meeting on this. But Lime is sharing the anonymized trip data with the city so it should be easy enough to determine after the fact.

[robdrimmie]

I think the cost acts as a moderate limiting factor as well. Not that I think they'll change the cost in the future, but at some point switching from $1/min scooter to $10 cab ride makes a lot more sense. For egregious or repeat violations there are sticks like account suspension or deletion.

[Canard]

I mean the fact they have your payment information and can charge you whatever they want should be enough of a disincentive to do anything stupid.

[neonjoe]

I saw one of the Lime scooters parked in a parking space at Costco in Waterloo. A lot of peopler were stopping to look at it. (I think mostly because a scooter was parked taking up an entire space right near the carts)

[KevinT]

Today I tried to use Lime scooters for a lunchtime trip from R&T Park station to University Plaza.

Although the app had loaded and worked perfectly for me yesterday to register and set up my credit card, today as I approached the pilot area from Phillip St it immediately crashed upon opening several times in a row.  I almost gave up, but tried one last time once I got to the Laurel trail and then it worked and I was able to unlock a scooter for a ride to the plaza.  I locked it on the Laurel trail by one of the University Plaza ION crossings and went for a haircut.  About 25 minutes later I was back, but when I tried to unlock the very same scooter the app said "Failed to unlock / This bike is currently under maintenance.  Please find another bike nearby on the map and contact us if you need help."  I tried the next scooter, and the next, but all 8 or so in this area of the trail failed to unlock in similar fashion.  Walking dejectedly back to the R&T Park stop I tried 8 more in another location, 8 in another, 5 in the next, and then finally at the south corner of Columbia I got one that worked again.  After crossing the tracks to the R&T Park station platform I got a popup informing me to return to the pilot area, despite the ION platform and the small bit of trail connecting to Factory Square's parking lot from the north end of the platform being included in the pilot per the Lime app's very own interactive map.  I locked my scooter up with the rest at the Factory Square ION crossing then carried on with my day.

In the end I enjoyed my two rides, but it was a frustrating experience that definitely needs some tuning...

[Canard]

...and you’re using about as stable and “normal” of an Android phone as they could ever want. That’s really bad! You should tweet them at @limebike and let them know.

[KevinT]

I sent Android crash reports, those should include the debug logs to help their devs figure out and fix the problem. It's just surprising considering that Lime has operated successfully in other cities for at least a year.

[plam]

I sent Android crash reports, those should include the debug logs to help their devs figure out and fix the problem.  It's just surprising considering that Lime has operated successfully in other cities for at least a year.

Yeah. I've used LimeBike in Seattle and didn't encounter any of these problems. But, new software... I think I was kind of annoyed about them wanting people to put on $20 of credit to use the bikes.