Author Topic: Rental bikes and scooters  (Read 11587 times)

Offline chocolateshake

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Re: Rental bikes and scooters
« Reply #90 on: July 18, 2018, 08:08:58 AM »
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We rode them yesterday band had a blast. No helmet and in the sidewalk like every other person we saw using them.

$100 ticket if the cops stop you.  Supposedly they are cracking down for comic-con.  The trolley cops step up enforcement big time yesterday compared to normal.  Last Friday I didn't get my ticket checked at all.  Yesterday I got checked twice, I saw a team of two lead away a ticket violator and a team of 5 checking tickets.  1 person actually doing the checking and the 4 others guarding him which IMO was a bit excessive.

Offline stl_ben

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Re: Rental bikes and scooters
« Reply #91 on: July 18, 2018, 08:44:11 AM »
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$100 ticket if the cops stop you.  Supposedly they are cracking down for comic-con.  The trolley cops step up enforcement big time yesterday compared to normal.  Last Friday I didn't get my ticket checked at all.  Yesterday I got checked twice, I saw a team of two lead away a ticket violator and a team of 5 checking tickets.  1 person actually doing the checking and the 4 others guarding him which IMO was a bit excessive.
yesterday we rode by multiple cops and actually right across the side wall of the big police station...

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Re: Rental bikes and scooters
« Reply #92 on: Today at 03:35:11 AM »

Offline SamTurtledove

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Re: Rental bikes and scooters
« Reply #92 on: July 19, 2018, 05:13:48 PM »
Yep. Bird this close.


Offline marcia29

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Re: Rental bikes and scooters
« Reply #93 on: July 26, 2018, 05:06:02 AM »
Walking scooters through the pedestrian areas was ok...I did see a few who tried to get into the walkers only areas riding them.  So...glad they were stopped. 
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Offline dolphina

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Re: Rental bikes and scooters
« Reply #94 on: July 26, 2018, 09:42:21 AM »
I wish I would have tried the scooters, they looked fun but I had broke my toe the day I left for SDCC and I was afraid of breaking something else. Next time I will use the bike instead of my car if I am going to CVS for just a couple of items. The parking in the parking lot right behind the CVS was $60 for 0-5 hrs, WTH!! So next time, I will bicycle. LOL
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Offline BenEatsRice

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Re: Rental bikes and scooters
« Reply #95 on: July 26, 2018, 09:19:31 PM »
TL;DR - Scooters are fun! Great in the mornings but hard to find later into the day. In the evenings, you might be searching for some time before giving up and taking an uber/lyft. Also, bike's are terrible for long uphill rides.
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I now have a love/hate relationship with these bikes/scooters. I'm local to San Diego and have never liked the look of the bikes strewn around the city. However, during Comic-Con week, I decided to try them out for the first time as I hadn't purchased parking close to the convention center.

Trip #1:
Thursday I got dropped off on Harbor drive (two miles south of downtown) and walked to the convention center. That night I took the trolley to my closest stop and still had about 10 miles to get home. I popped open the Lime app to see if there were any scooters around. There was one a couple blocks away in a shady part of town. I walked over only to discover there was nothing there. Another popped up near a strip mall in the area. Got there and couldn't find it, but it appeared to be showing up on the map what looked to be "inside" of a store. Looked in the back door and sure enough it was in the office of a locked business, plugged into the wall. I spoke up to a couple of workers in the store and said "are you gonna use that scooter?" They said yes, one of their employees was going to take it home later that night. Seemed a bit sketchy/unfair, but I wasn't going to get into an argument over it. No more scooters in the area so I started walking home. Oh, there's a bike if I walk over this way a half mile...nope, handlebar grips were stolen and spider webs all over it. Finally found one after walking 1.5 more miles around. Hopped on, threw my backpack in the basket, and rode my way home about 8 more miles on a slight uphill the entire way <uggh>. Worst choice ever, but I was committed to it for some reason. I didn't want to give in and grab an Uber/Lyft for $20. Instead I took 1.5 hours to ride home on a $3 bike rental. Never will I do that again. Discovered about 4 miles in that I could adjust the seat to a higher position for my height (6'1). Not high enough, but at least it stretched my legs out a bit more. When I finally got home, I drank 3 full glasses of water straight up and sat in front of the fan with my shirt off for 45 minutes to cool down. Woke up with legs cramping in the middle of the night and was also sore in the morning. Fun story though, right?  :o

Trips #2 & 3:
Friday I drove in and parked at the Zoo. I knew people left scooters in that parking lot so I could grab one and head in. It was awesome! Early morning with not many people around. The wind blowing smoothly over my shaved head  :D. This is what I've been waiting for. Got down to the convention center and parked it behind The Good Place setup. The perfect trip. Decided to check out Hall H line that morning (@ 8:30AM) and to my surprise, I got in!! My trip back to the zoo was just as good with no issues. I was pleasantly surprised by how great it was.

Trips #4 & 5:
Saturday I parked on the west side of Balboa Park to be a bit closer than the zoo and took a scooter in. Finding scooters in the mornings was easy. They seem to be everywhere and are all fully charged. Had another smooth ride to the convention center, made a mid-morning scooter trip back to my car to drop some stuff off before a Conan taping, then back down to Spreckles for the show. However, at the end of the day, when I wanted head back to my car, all the batteries on these scooters were dead or the scooters themselves were nowhere to be found. I had both the Lime and Bird apps open while searching for something with a charge. I would spot one a half mile away, make the trek, and discover it was nowhere to be found. I kept doing this for what seemed to feel like 2-3 miles and decided to get an Uber/Lyft because my feet were killing me.

In the end: The bike was not fun. The only situation I could see myself taking a bike again would be a long downhill trek or on a flat ride along a boardwalk, but in that case, I would rather walk and browse the stores/sites. I did enjoy riding the scooters! I just wish there were more of them charged and available in the latter part of the days. I would definitely ride the scooters again because they are so much fun.
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Offline marcia29

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Re: Rental bikes and scooters
« Reply #96 on: July 27, 2018, 03:56:52 AM »
[member=4801]BenEatsRice[/member] - Loved your tome on bikes and scooters!  Really gave me some super insight into something totally out of my comfort zone.  Those riding the scooters particularly seemed to be having a great time...but if the battery runs out...ouch!
It is 2024, and I am still asking...where's my flyin' car??!! @fannishmarcia

Offline vegasndn

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Re: Rental bikes and scooters
« Reply #97 on: July 27, 2018, 05:48:27 AM »
After the swag swap dinner we wanted to rent 3 scooters to get back to the Omni but no luck. I saw a lady driving around in something looking like a go cart with 4 scooters on her ride asking people if they wanted a tour of downtown, she was charging for the tour and you had to rent the scooter she had stashed Next couple scooters had no juice left in battery or there was something wrong with them. Another a guy took off with one right as we got near it and last one in front of Marriott that had kids playing on it without activation. After that we just walked back to room.


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Offline chocolateshake

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Re: Rental bikes and scooters
« Reply #98 on: July 27, 2018, 08:58:36 AM »
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Looked in the back door and sure enough it was in the office of a locked business, plugged into the wall.

That's how they get charged.  The companies don't send people around to pick them up and charge them, the companies pays random people to charge them.  Just like a rider looking for a scooter can pull up their locations on the app, chargers can pull up the locations of scooters to go get them and charge them.  Instead of paying to ride them, chargers get paid by the company to charge them.

Offline BenEatsRice

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Re: Rental bikes and scooters
« Reply #99 on: July 27, 2018, 09:01:46 AM »
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That's how they get charged.  The companies don't send people around to pick them up and charge them, the companies pays random people to charge them.  Just like a rider looking for a scooter can pull up their locations on the app, chargers can pull up the locations of scooters to go get them and charge them.  Instead of paying to ride them, chargers get paid by the company to charge them.
When people pick them up for charging, it takes them off the app map. This guy was locking it up so he had a ride home later. I sent a message to Lime about it and they weren’t too sympathetic.
What is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

Offline chocolateshake

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Re: Rental bikes and scooters
« Reply #100 on: July 27, 2018, 09:08:23 AM »
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[member=4801]BenEatsRice[/member] - Loved your tome on bikes and scooters!  Really gave me some super insight into something totally out of my comfort zone.  Those riding the scooters particularly seemed to be having a great time...but if the battery runs out...ouch!

I've been riding electric scooters for a couple of decades.  They are fun.  The beauty is that if they run out of power, you can just use them as non-motorized kick scooters.  These rentals are easy to do that with since they are so low to the ground.  Some non-motorized scooters are the same size.  Some of the scooters I've had are about the size of a small motorcycle or the full suspended ones are about a foot further off the ground than is comfortably to kick them down the road.

Offline marcia29

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Re: Rental bikes and scooters
« Reply #101 on: July 27, 2018, 10:14:40 AM »
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...The beauty is that if they run out of power, you can just use them as non-motorized kick scooters. ...

...Ahh....that makes it much less intimidating for me.  If it runs out of power, go Flintstone style!
It is 2024, and I am still asking...where's my flyin' car??!! @fannishmarcia

Offline alyssa

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Re: Rental bikes and scooters
« Reply #102 on: July 27, 2018, 10:52:34 AM »
yeah, later on in the day the lime scooters were hard to find and locate-- and if i could they were usually out of service

I could hardly ever get the bird app to work-
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Offline Pyramid

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Re: Rental bikes and scooters
« Reply #103 on: July 28, 2018, 08:14:04 PM »
I had a total blast riding the Lime scooters and getting back and for from theHBF to Seaport Village was a breeze.  We spent close $30 on Lime scooters over our six days. 
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Offline chocolateshake

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Re: Rental bikes and scooters
« Reply #104 on: August 15, 2018, 11:48:15 AM »
So what happens to all those rental bikes you see in the middle of the street and in the bushes?  This happens.