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Quote:In related news, for kicks, tomorrow I will attempt to add a kick scooter (haha) to my commute, I've only ever used it as a toy before, but given how cheap they are compared with the surprising cost of the lime scooters, I thought I'd give it a try. Given it's foot powered, it'll also be a lot more exercise than escooters. Given my commute is 5km at it's shortest, and 6-7 to stick to paved trails, I'm thinking it's going to be a little long, but we shall see.
Which model of scooter are you going to use? My commute is only about 5 km, and I haven't tried it with a scooter before. I really don't know much about kick scooters.
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(10-24-2018, 11:57 AM)timc Wrote: Quote:In related news, for kicks, tomorrow I will attempt to add a kick scooter (haha) to my commute, I've only ever used it as a toy before, but given how cheap they are compared with the surprising cost of the lime scooters, I thought I'd give it a try. Given it's foot powered, it'll also be a lot more exercise than escooters. Given my commute is 5km at it's shortest, and 6-7 to stick to paved trails, I'm thinking it's going to be a little long, but we shall see.
Which model of scooter are you going to use? My commute is only about 5 km, and I haven't tried it with a scooter before. I really don't know much about kick scooters.
Funniest thing to me is seeing kick scooters being used by people in suits in Zurich. It's just the thing people do there.
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(10-24-2018, 11:57 AM)timc Wrote: Quote:In related news, for kicks, tomorrow I will attempt to add a kick scooter (haha) to my commute, I've only ever used it as a toy before, but given how cheap they are compared with the surprising cost of the lime scooters, I thought I'd give it a try. Given it's foot powered, it'll also be a lot more exercise than escooters. Given my commute is 5km at it's shortest, and 6-7 to stick to paved trails, I'm thinking it's going to be a little long, but we shall see.
Which model of scooter are you going to use? My commute is only about 5 km, and I haven't tried it with a scooter before. I really don't know much about kick scooters.
I have a Razor A5 Lux...it's basic but functional and light, there are probably better and less childish looking options for commuting. I think big wheels were the key, makes it feel safer going over curbs and cracks. I don't think there's too much else too them though, simpler than bikes for sure.
I can tell you 5 km is doable, but long on a scooter, I would probably bike, but for a variety of reasons, I'm not doing that right now. Certainly it was fun enough this morning, and quite a bit faster than walking, that I'd definitely consider it if it was too close to be worth biking.
@plam Yeah, I get the idea they're really popular in some places, the UK maybe as well, but less so here, perhaps because our distances are longer, and walking is less common, but that's just speculation at this point. Electric scooters would partially solve the distance problem, I definitely got much more exercise than walking this morning.
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On my drive home from work today I saw one heading down King St in front of the Manulife building at the expressway. Very, very, slowly. Last night I unlocked three in out-of-pilot locations and rode them back to the route for my trips (albeit only 50 to 100 metres or so, nothing as crazy as Manulife). I can't figure out if people are deliberately riding them off-route and just accepting the reduced speeds, or if they're simply that clueless and then cursing the scooters for not working very well. It's both maddening and puzzling to me.
...K
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Forgot to mention it, but the app was in metric for me when I used it last Thursday. Huzzah!
...K
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(10-25-2018, 09:50 PM)KevinT Wrote: On my drive home from work today I saw one heading down King St in front of the Manulife building at the expressway. Very, very, slowly. Last night I unlocked three in out-of-pilot locations and rode them back to the route for my trips (albeit only 50 to 100 metres or so, nothing as crazy as Manulife). I can't figure out if people are deliberately riding them off-route and just accepting the reduced speeds, or if they're simply that clueless and then cursing the scooters for not working very well. It's both maddening and puzzling to me.
Last week, while watching night ION testing & training, I saw someone zip by at full speed on the road at Caroline & Allen.
It was 100% a Lime scooter! I couldn’t believe it. I thought they were going to wipe out on the tracks; didn’t even slow down.
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Looks like things were a big success:
Waterloo’s electric scooter program proved popular and is set to return next spring
Quote:The first phase of the Lime electric scooter pilot program in Waterloo wrapped up Friday, and it proved to be very popular and provided plenty of data for staff to analyze ahead of Phase 2 next spring.
Users rent the e-scooters through the Lime app on their phone, then drop them off at designated parking areas when they're done. Lime collects the scooters every night to charge them.
From Oct. 2 to Nov. 30, more than 6,000 different riders completed more than 18,000 trips, riding for about six minutes per trip and travelling a total of more than 19,000 kilometres.
...
The spring pilot will operate from April 1 to Sept. 30, 2019, with a report to council scheduled for Aug. 12.
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I'd like to see them pitch it to Regional council. There would be good opportunities Region wide for them to try this out.
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(12-03-2018, 11:19 AM)Spokes Wrote: I'd like to see them pitch it to Regional council. There would be good opportunities Region wide for them to try this out.
The challenge with scooters rights now is it is the opinion of WRPS that they are illegal on roads. That's the reason for the "restricted" pilot, deniability. We'll need a HTA update before a region wide rollout.
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12-03-2018, 12:34 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-03-2018, 12:35 PM by Canard.)
We should also make sure people stop parking them in the middle of the trail.
Kansas City actually had a problem with people parking them inside their LRV’s.
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(12-03-2018, 12:34 PM)Canard Wrote: We should also make sure people stop parking them in the middle of the trail.
Kansas City actually had a problem with people parking them inside their LRV’s.
This is absolutely essential as well.
Inside of an LRV is kinda a trolly move.
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The "CO2 Saved" and "Driving Avoided" stats seem to assume that most of these riders would have driven to their destination rather than walk or take the bus, which seem more likely for the audience and the route.
My hope for the next phase is some kind of subsidy for R&T Park employees - the drawback of LRT is that it puts the transit stop 500 m further from most offices in the park (except Evolv1) so everyone who takes transit will have an extra 1 km walk every day. Scooters would help close the gap but not appealing to pay several bucks each way on top of the transit fare. I might pay for a monthly pass depending on the price but it would be even better as a benefit offered to anyone who forgoes a parking pass. It could even help convince people on the fence about switching over to transit.
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My dream would be tap to ride, tap to lock with your EasyGo fare card. Free if in the transfer window. :-)
...K
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I wonder if a lime scooter account would be a taxable benefit. It could be done as gift cards, which would probably fall under "non-cash gifts and awards" but transit passes explicitly are taxable.
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