Lime Scooter Share

[danbrotherston]

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.

That did tick me off, I feel like pay as you go should bill me at the end.

In any case, you can also change it to 10.00 which is what I did.

[Canard]

Whoah, haha, what?

I literally touched my thumb to my reader and ApplePay took care of the rest, it was like $1.85.

You guys all had to pay $20?!

[plam]

Whoah, haha, what?

I literally touched my thumb to my reader and ApplePay took care of the rest, it was like $1.85.

You guys all had to pay $20?!

Interesting. I think I got some free LimeBike credit in Seattle, ran that out, and switched to another of the (then 3) bike-share companies (which has now moved out of Seattle).

[tvot]

I use an iPhone, so Apple Pay and no adding credit for me.

I decided to use it on my way from my home Uptown to my parents' place in Lakeshore. Normally I can walk it in about 45 minutes (sometimes I bike). Using the Lime cut the total trip down to 30 minutes, but it cost me $2.70 and I did back-track a little to get to the bridge by the Perimeter Institute to get the scooter.

   

The route shown on the map is pretty accurate. I thought it was fun, and I may use one again sometime if I'm out and running late, but I wouldn't necessarily plan a trip depending on their use. 

I do now have $1 credit to use by November 7th thanks to giving up my email address, so I'll try to have one more ride. I gave out my referral code to a few people but no one has used it yet that I've seen.

I didn't see anyone using them on my walk through the park tonight but the last few nights I've seen a few, even on Father David Bauer coming from Westmount by the ball diamonds -- so like others I see no evidence of geo-fencing.

[tomh009]

33% time savings over walking isn't really huge.

Aside: that carbon savings is bogus, too. Compared to driving a car? Compared to bicycling or walking?

[KevinT]

I used them again twice yesterday:

The car was at Cambridge Hyundai so I used the 200 iXpress to get from there to work near R&T Park.  Normally I'd hop off at either Albert McCormick or Hagey / Wes Graham and walk to work (six of one, half dozen of the other) but I saw two scooters at the Hagey / Columbia iXpress stop so jumped out there.  I scootered to the R&T Park ION station to both cut down on my walk to Phillip St, and because it was fun!

At lunch I did a pure joy ride from R&T Park station to the Perimeter institute and back.  (I might be an addict.)

I didn't see anyone using them on my walk through the park tonight but the last few nights I've seen a few, even on Father David Bauer coming from Westmount by the ball diamonds -- so like others I see no evidence of geo-fencing.

During my second ride on the first day Lime thought that I strayed out of the pilot zone while traversing the R&T Park station platform, I suspect the GPS signal was degraded by the canopy.  In addition to a warning popping up on my phone, the scooter had only limited power until I cleared the platform.  That's in line with what was stated in the The Record article:

"The scooters can travel up to 24 km/h, and employ geofencing and slowdown mechanisms to keep them operating within the dedicated area between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m."

Oddly enough it was only on the first of my four rides where the app tracked a route that it could show me at the end.  The other three are all just listed as "0 ft - X mins" with no trip plot.  I don't know if it's the app or the scooter itself that enforces the geofence.  Ideally the scooter would do all the real-time GPS stuff and then report my route to their servers, but I don't think that's how it works because that first ride was a huge battery suck on my phone but I don't recall crazy battery usage on the other rides which didn't track.  Again, buggy Android app!

33% time savings over walking isn't really huge.

@tvot's ride was uphill.  That was obvious during my out-and-back ride to the Perimeter Institute yesterday, as it was much faster getting there than coming back!  Even though we're only talking tiny percentage level railroad grades, it seems to make a huge difference to those little scooters when you're my size.

Whoah, haha, what?

I literally touched my thumb to my reader and ApplePay took care of the rest, it was like $1.85.

You guys all had to pay $20?!

It's weirder than that.  According to my banking app Lime charged me $1.50, then $2.10, then $26.79 all on the same day.  Right now the app shows a balance of $16.37, but with rides of 6, 4, 4, and 19 minutes my balance should be $16.49.  They owe me $0.12. 

[danbrotherston]

@KevinT

Yeah, the app was the biggest surprise for me, I thought that of all things, they would have gotten that right.

If the scooter was communicating with the phone, I would expect to see it using Bluetooth or something, and I don't think it would work on iPhones. I suspect it must be connecting directly to servers.

I too had issues with my trip map but in my case it showed about 2/3rds of my trip, yet my scooter knew where it was at the end of the trip. Oh well.

I'm glad to hear they've started actually restricting their pilot project.

And yeah, uphill is not really great for heavier riders.

But yeah, I'll agree, it was a fun thing to try out.

[tvot]

33% time savings over walking isn't really huge.

Aside: that carbon savings is bogus, too. Compared to driving a car? Compared to bicycling or walking?

Yeah, the 33% time savings wasn't convincing to me at all. I would normally bike or walk that particular route, so although I had fun, I don't see a compelling reason for me to use it for that purpose.

Also, for the carbon savings, my transportation options are biking, walking, and as of this spring my 2018 Nissan Leaf; so not valid at all for me. I'll still take the bus on occasion (sometimes I like to walk to downtown Kitchener to meet up with friends and then bus back if it's getting late).

[Canard]

Where are you getting only a 33% time savings?

They go 4x faster than walking speed.

[timc]

I read the 33% time savings as being over the entire trip, including the walking part. The scooter part would give a much greater savings.

[tomh009]

I read the 33% time savings as being over the entire trip, including the walking part. The scooter part would give a much greater savings.

Right. The ride itself is much faster (less so if going uphill) but there is some detour walking to get the scooter, the time to pick it up and activate and then to drop it off. So the total time savings is much less than if comparing just the raw speed.

[timc]

I don't mean that time. What I got from tvot's comment is that they normally have a 45 minute walk, and by using a combination of scooter and walking, their trip was reduced to 30 minutes. Now, I don't know the walking speed, but if I assume a pace of approximately 10 min/km, then tvot has a 4.5 km walk. The 2.4 km scooter ride that would normally take 24 minutes was reduced to 9 minutes, and the rest of the walk was as usual. So, the scooter part that was paid for was a 63% time savings.

I think that compared to other modes of transportation, Lime isn't cheap. But if you think of it as saving fifteen minutes of travel time for under $3, it isn't too bad. And they're kind of fun to ride too.

[tvot]

I don't mean that time. What I got from tvot's comment is that they normally have a 45 minute walk, and by using a combination of scooter and walking, their trip was reduced to 30 minutes. Now, I don't know the walking speed, but if I assume a pace of approximately 10 min/km, then tvot has a 4.5 km walk. The 2.4 km scooter ride that would normally take 24 minutes was reduced to 9 minutes, and the rest of the walk was as usual. So, the scooter part that was paid for was a 63% time savings.

I think that compared to other modes of transportation, Lime isn't cheap. But if you think of it as saving fifteen minutes of travel time for under $3, it isn't too bad. And they're kind of fun to ride too.

I will confirm that this is accurate.

But despite being fun to ride, I'd rather walk or bike. I could really only see myself using one again if I had walked over to the UW area and wanted to speed up my trip home... maybe the next time I walk over to Kismet.

[Canard]

The great part about having options is that for those who don't want to walk or bike, now they have another option.

For those who want to walk, they can walk - for those who want to still bike, they can bike. It's good for everyone!

[IworkinIT]

I'm not having a great experience with this company. I unlocked a scooter and rode it and when I was done, the app kept crashing on me so I couldn't lock the scooter. This means that the clock is still ticking and I'm being charged. Eventually (10-15 minutes later) I was able to get the app loaded and ended the ride. I'm still waiting to get a reply from their Support Dept but at this point I'm just done and tired of waiting for them to do anything.