Bird has raised $100M for electric scooter sharing

Re:Bird has raised $100M for electric scooter sharing by tyingq on Friday March 09, 2018 @07:23PM (#16556265)

I'm baffled because of the inherent risk. Helmets are required, but not supplied. And they seem equally not street legal nor sidewalk legal. Seems one city council vote away from being squashed.

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Re:Bird has raised $100M for electric scooter sharing by jdavis703 on Friday March 09, 2018 @07:37PM (#16556352)

E-Skateboards are street legal [1], why are e-scooters different?

1: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtm...

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Re:Bird has raised $100M for electric scooter sharing by tristanj on Friday March 09, 2018 @07:35PM (#16556338)

Investors want to replicate the massive success of overseas bikesharing companies. Ofo has over 60m users, Mobike has over 100m users. These companies are worth billions and do over 50m trips per day. Helmets, legality, and legislation haven't stopped these companies. Take Uber, they were illegal from the start & were always 'one city council vote away from being squashed' but that never stopped them.

I don't think there's anything similar to overseas bikesharing in US, and I can understand why VCs want to invest.

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Re:Bird has raised $100M for electric scooter sharing by dbajakkchs on Friday March 09, 2018 @07:34PM (#16556329)

Why do you say they aren’t street legal?

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Re:Bird has raised $100M for electric scooter sharing by tyingq on Friday March 09, 2018 @07:40PM (#16556371)

”On the roadway, it must be operated in the bicycle lane, if there is one. On roads without bicycle lanes, motorized scooters may operate where the speed limit is 25 mph or less“

Seems pretty limiting to me. Street legal in a VERY constrained set of circumstances. Only roads with bicycle lanes or a speed limit of 25mph or less. And probably varies wildly based on jurisdiction.

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/?1dmy&urile=wcm:path:/dmv_...

Edit: Downvoting? That’s cool, but please explain where I’m off base. Do you not think that “has bike lanes or a speed limit of 25mph” is pretty limited?

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Re:Bird has raised $100M for electric scooter sharing by dbajakkchs on Friday March 09, 2018 @09:08PM (#16556701)

I didn’t downvote, however I would say that 25 mph speed limit is definitely compatible with street legal. Cyclist commuters hardly reach that speed. It’s faster than traffic in a congested city. And based on the look of those scooters, I have a hard time believing they’d even be stable above 25 mph.

It sounds to me the regulations may be more intended to restrict the speed of things that look like bicycles or mopeds, and probably won’t affect these scooters at all. Look at how small those wheels are.

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Re:Bird has raised $100M for electric scooter sharing by tyingq on Friday March 09, 2018 @09:14PM (#16556714)

It's that the roadway itself has a posted speed limit of 25mph or less, or has bicycle lanes. That's not common.

So, for example, a roadway with a posted 30mph limit, and no bike lanes...the scooters are not legal in that case.

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Re:Bird has raised $100M for electric scooter sharing by dbajakkchs on Friday March 09, 2018 @09:21PM (#16556738)

I see, that does sound like they would be pretty much useless in the burbs, more useful in some downtown cores, but you’d have to keep track of the speed limit on the particular road you’re on.

The rules on ebikes in California are very different - there is a 20 mph speed limit for throttle control, and 28 mph speed limit for pedal assist. But the limit applies to the bike, not the road. I got confused by the differences between the two laws.

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