E-scooter trials - but rental only. What do members think?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

I saw two people using them today. I think they'd just activated the app and unlocked them.

Yeah, 20p a minute does seem a lot compared to ?1 an hour for the Yo bikes (which of course aren't electric) or even to a bus fare.

Noting that YoBikes are now NoBikes.  From Bristol 24/7

Bristol’s dockless bicycle hire scheme is no more, with YoBike quietly pulling the plug on their operations in the city.

The YoBike website has been deleted but the app is still available to download.

Customers across Bristol are now asking how they can get money back which is still on their accounts within the YoBike app.

A natural thinning out of the commercial market as it matures, a problem with the business model, or something else?  How are cycle hire outfits doing elsewhere?

[Bmblbzzz]

As far as I'm aware other schemes in other cities are still running. I can only speculate but I'd guess at two factors:
Competition from the new (to Bristol) electric scooter hire scheme, which is very popular.
A natural consequence of the dockless hire model. Because the bikes don't have to be returned to a secure location to end the hire period, they're more vulnerable to vandalism, theft and being thrown in the New Cut. This means greater operating expenses in terms of distribution and maintenance and replenishing dwindling supplies. Which leads to another potential factor, running out of stock!

[Richard Fairhurst]

They've pretty much all gone from Oxford, which once had four competing companies. Great shame - I used Mobike extensively in Milan a couple of years ago and it was a superb way of seeing the city. But frankly this is what happens when big-bang VC investment means that a company doesn't grow a market organically...

[stuving]

And, coincidentally, from the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) today -

Bikes from failed ReadyBike hire scheme used for tourism boost

Bicycles left over from a failed hire scheme are being donated to hotels in a bid to boost tourism.

The ReadyBike scheme in Reading ended in 2019 after struggling when a government subsidy ended.

It emerged Reading Borough Council had been keeping the scheme running at a cost of £10,000 a month.

The council said it was donating 50 redundant bikes as a "new sustainable travel option" for hotel visitors and staff.

The stock of ReadyBikes has been kept in storage since the bike hire scheme ended two years ago.

The bikes were also offered to key workers in Reading as part of a short-term loan scheme during the pandemic.

Reading's hotels had suffered from lockdowns restricting overnight stays, with some losing almost an entire year's income, the council said.

Nigel Horton Baker of Reading UK^▸ (United Kingdom), which promotes tourism in the Berkshire town, said the donation was "very welcome" for the "hard-hit tourism and hospitality sector" which has been curtailed with lockdowns restricting overnight stays.

"With business visitor numbers decimated, it is vital that Reading's hotels are able to attract leisure visitors this year.

"Promoting Reading as a healthy and safe outdoor destination will be an important strand of this work," he added.

[CyclingSid]

The Brompton hire in Reading also failed, although I believe that was partly to do with repeated attempts to steal the bikes. Last time I looked Brompton hire had never turned a profit.

[Bmblbzzz]

I would imagine (might be wrong) the Brompton Docks were aimed very much at commuters. So maybe, just maybe, business will pick up for them from next year.

[TonyK]

In Bristol, I became accustomed to the yellow bikes, or remains thereof, being dumped willy-nilly. I wondered how a business could continue in that situation. Seems I know the answer now.

[Red Squirrel]

HIRE SCOOTERS REMOVED FROM AREAS OF CLIFTON VILLAGE

The menace of a melee of hire scooters has led to complaints that the vehicles are regularly blocking pavements across Bristol.

Voi vehicles need to be parked by users in specific places, but some of these “geofenced” areas are on narrow pavements.

Cliftonwood resident Jess Siggers said that she “frigging hates these things”, referring to the e-scooters and tweeting a photo of more than a dozen them blocking the pavement on Sion Hill close to the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

[...]

The e-scooter operator is now exploring new user features to ensure scooters are correctly parked and has launched a page where people can report any misplaced scooters: www.voiscooters.com/report/uk

Full article

Source: Bristol247

[broadgage]

E scooter hire to be expanded.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48106617

A good thing in my view, there will of course be accidents, but hopefully not too many.
Cycling and walking also results in accidents but these modes of transport are tolerated and even encouraged.

With the current concerns about climate change and fossil fuel depletion, we need to encourage use of E-scooters and other very low carbon options such as E-bikes.

In my view private E scooters should be allowed, not just rental machines. They should be subject to the same limits on speed as are E- cycles.

E-scooters and E-bikes of greater speed and power should NOT be totally prohibited, but should be treated as motorcycles, and require a motorcycle licence, hard hat, and insurance.

No such should be required for low speed machines.

[TaplowGreen]

E scooter hire to be expanded.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48106617

A good thing in my view, there will of course be accidents, but hopefully not too many.
Cycling and walking also results in accidents but these modes of transport are tolerated and even encouraged.

With the current concerns about climate change and fossil fuel depletion, we need to encourage use of E-scooters and other very low carbon options such as E-bikes.

In my view private E scooters should be allowed, not just rental machines. They should be subject to the same limits on speed as are E- cycles.

E-scooters and E-bikes of greater speed and power should NOT be totally prohibited, but should be treated as motorcycles, and require a motorcycle licence, hard hat, and insurance.

No such should be required for low speed machines.

Those on offer in 4 London Boroughs are limited to 15mph and require the hirer to have a car licence, not motorcycle licence.

Helmets are not compulsory, but anyone choosing not to wear one clearly has little worth protecting in their head.

[grahame]

Those on offer in 4 London Boroughs are limited to 15mph and require the hirer to have a car licence, not motorcycle licence.

I would suspect the car license is chosen because it's a commonly held license that requires you to know rules of the road and to have been passed as reasonably competent.  Fewer people hold motorcycle licenses, so to require one of those instead, though probably closer in skill needs to an e-scooter, would limit the market of possible renters.   I couldn't find stats for the numbers of licenses, but I did find a page telling me that motorcycle miles are about one hundredth of car miles.

[TaplowGreen]

Those on offer in 4 London Boroughs are limited to 15mph and require the hirer to have a car licence, not motorcycle licence.

I would suspect the car license is chosen because it's a commonly held license that requires you to know rules of the road and to have been passed as reasonably competent.  Fewer people hold motorcycle licenses, so to require one of those instead, though probably closer in skill needs to an e-scooter, would limit the market of possible renters.   I couldn't find stats for the numbers of licenses, but I did find a page telling me that motorcycle miles are about one hundredth of car miles.

It's because Category Q, which includes trial e-scooters, is included on a car license.

[Bmblbzzz]

It's also included on a motorcycle licence, according to that BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) story. It would be odd if it were not.

I agree with Broadgage on this, the relevant laws should be amended to allow all e-scooters to be used legally on roads, subject to the speed, weight and power limits applied to the hire scooters.

[Red Squirrel]

Helmets are not compulsory, but anyone choosing not to wear one clearly has little worth protecting in their head.

Voi quite assertively recommend that anyone hiring one of their e-scooters should wear a helmet. Of course it doesn't cost Voi much to do that, and could help their defence should a customer sustain a head injury and subsequently sue.

In reality, Voi's business model is all about convenience. Almost certainly most of their users don't possess a helmet of any kind. For those who do have one, it may not be very convenient to carry it around on the off-chance that they may need it.

I have seen a lot of people riding Voi scooters where I live in north-west Bristol. I can't remember seeing anyone wearing a helmet on one. Maybe this is in part due to the fact that there are few modern highways and extensive 20 mph speed limits in much of this area, making the roads somewhat safer for non-motorists.

At the end of the WECA^» (West of England Combined Authority - about) trial we'll presumably have statistics on rates of injury, including where crashes happened, who else was involved and what protective clothing the user was wearing. From these it will be possible to take a balanced view on how these machines should be regulated, without indulging in victim-blaming or culture war tropes.

[TaplowGreen]

A study of 248 people injured in Berlin revealed that 1 in 4 of those injured whilst riding scooters were admitted to hospital, 1 in 5 who came off were over the drink drive limit (of whom 31% sustained traumatic brain injuries), and only 1 in 100 were wearing a helmet.

The study concluded that helmets should be compulsory, there should be a minimum age limit of 18, a ban on alcohol no driving on pavements and strict adherence to traffic regulations.



Let's hope we take all that on board. Protecting one's brain is probably worth a little minor inconvenience.