The dockless scooter industry is going after a repossessor and a bike shop owner(theverge.com)
theverge.com
The dockless scooter industry is going after a repossessor and a bike shop owner
https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/24/20696405/dockless-scooters-share-repo-men-repossessor-lawsuit-tow-yard-lime-bird-lyft-uber-razor
10 comments
Scooters should have docks or designated parking areas.
The concept is cool but, like dockless bikeshare, the execution has been a mess resulting in littering all over public sidewalks and also apparently over private property.
I’m not sure I trust repo guys and tow companies not to fraudulently tow the scooters though.
The concept is cool but, like dockless bikeshare, the execution has been a mess resulting in littering all over public sidewalks and also apparently over private property.
I’m not sure I trust repo guys and tow companies not to fraudulently tow the scooters though.
"Scooters should have docks or designated parking areas."
Why only designated parking areas? Why not allow scooters (and bicycles) to park anywhere that cars can?
Why only designated parking areas? Why not allow scooters (and bicycles) to park anywhere that cars can?
Well that would still technically be a designated parking area - if an overlapping one. Cars have them as well.
The main reason why not is if there are other non-disruptive locations for it they should be parked there first. Better to have bikes on bike racks before they start taking street spaces for instance.
The main reason why not is if there are other non-disruptive locations for it they should be parked there first. Better to have bikes on bike racks before they start taking street spaces for instance.
Why non-disruptive? Cars take up massive amounts of space. They can stand to be inconvenienced a tiny amount.
Because more often than not only a small amount of organization is actually needed to stop scooters and bikes from being in way of people using the sidewalk?
If that was actually the case, we should see huge amounts of space devoted to bicycles at this point. We do not. If you’ve ever ridden in the city and had the only three bike rings for a full block taken up, you share the frustration.
"When I call them in July, Heinkel and Borelli say that they recently celebrated impounding their 10,360th scooter with some donuts and large coffees from 7/11."
Assuming that they win in court, and companies won't pay the "ransoms", they have at least a Million Dollar Inventory.
Assuming that they win in court, and companies won't pay the "ransoms", they have at least a Million Dollar Inventory.
The GPS logs should show if this tow company has removed from public property.
And using that the companies should possibly also be able to charge costumers that leave the scooter in bad places an extra fee. Or maybe do that after a complaint is made to the scooter company.
Cheers to the repo man in this case. The scooters are left like trash everywhere. The scooter companies know they're left everywhere like trash. The public and semi-public places are being used as free storage by the scooter companies. They abuse the public resources to make money. If their junk is left on private property, then repo it. If they're going to argue under the vehicle code the scooters can't be repo'd, I'd like to know when you can't tow a car parked on your business's sidewalk.
In the US, the towing industry is a racket on its own. I'm not sure if it's good that one public nuisance is trying to get the upper-hand on another public nuisance.
I assume the endgame for the scooter companies is to get big enough before regulation kicks in and they're forced to add docks of some kind, but so are potential competitors. That would be a nice little moat for them.
I wonder therefore how long it takes before one of the companies thinks they can gain an advantage by getting first dibs on dock locations.
I wonder therefore how long it takes before one of the companies thinks they can gain an advantage by getting first dibs on dock locations.
The scooters have GPS, have the companies required by law to send out representatives to clean up any scooter on private property that hasn't explicitly given permission for them to be there, and allow the city to mark of any public area they want as forbidden as well.
At the end of the day, I'm surprised cities have embraced these scooters with open arms.
Most haven't actually. The modus operandi of the scooter companies seems to be:
1. Drop a load of scooters around town in the middle of the night
2. Wait for the city to take notice
3. Apply for permit after the fact
They're very much in the "Easier to ask forgiveness than permission" game right now.
1. Drop a load of scooters around town in the middle of the night
2. Wait for the city to take notice
3. Apply for permit after the fact
They're very much in the "Easier to ask forgiveness than permission" game right now.
They don't. They flout the law like many SV app companies do. Uber, AirBNB, etc. The scooters are just the next thing. They're going to argue plenty, but I hope to see their street trash mass auctioned to the highest bidder from the impound lots.
Good, we need more folks like these in every other city these obnoxious things had been unleashed upon.
> they [juicers] had broken into his storage unit and were holding scooters, he says. Heinkel confronted them, trying to grab the scooters back. He says that one of the workers, a man who towered over Heinkel, punched him a few times. Then he got on the scooter and started riding it toward Heinkel
That read like some kind of a Mad Max scene. It's just so bizarre.