Excellent, and they come with helmets too?
I’m presuming they have lights, but given the number of people who ride their bikes with no lights, wearing black clothes, and with no damn helmet on… rearrange these words - traps death?
The Bird ones appear to come with helmets according to some leaked assets. Wheelz… not so much.
1 Like
Could be a good stop gap in the UK until such time that the law allows for electric scooters which are Personal Light Electric Vehicles or PLEVs.
The electric bike will be an Electrically Assisted Pedal Cycle or EAPCs.
The law currently allows for EAPCs subject to certain conditions whereas PLEVs are illegal unless used on private land with the permission of the landowner.
2 Likes
I can’t stand the way they are dumped all over the place… It’s a hazard… saw this one at night and in the rain on the weekend - this is a hazard to say someone in a wheelchair and annoying if walking two people under an umbrella etc… -
Yeah thats not courteaus at all,
Would be nice if there should was some way to report people maybe through the Lime app for doing things like that, Surely Lime would know who the last person to use it and dock it there was so could give warnings/fines for repeat offenders
They wouldn’t really be able to do that. If you were a user you’d be pretty annoyed if you parked the bike in a sensible place and then somebody moved it to the middle of the footpath after you’ve left resulting in a fine.
I’m in Cologne at the moment and I’ve been using their scooters. Every time you park you’re asked to take a photo of the scooter. There’s also a function within the app to rate the parking of others and warn them if they’ve parked incorrectly. That would be great to have in the UK.
4 Likes
This certainly seems to be the case. A collective of folks who work for e-scooter companies like Bird, Lime, etc did meet with the Minister for Transport in the summer. But amidst all the Brexit madness, the minister changed not long after that, so they might have had to start from scratch.
We really need to make some changes here - there’s demand for these and there’s huge investment and economic opportunity not just from US companies but from European ones too. And there’s UK companies doing research into this space - who already have VC’s ready to invest - that simply can’t start proper operations until these laws get amended.
4 Likes
A very thoughtful video from The Verge.
Time for London and New York to catch up with the times.
I personally can’t wait to see companies like Bird and Lime operating here. I’m seeing more and more e-scooters around the UK every single day, but the cost of ownership (and worries around fines etc) disproportionately affects those on lower incomes.
2 Likes
That’s a very good and informative video.
1 Like
Now that there will be less ubers (potentially) they should prioritize legalizing these hybrid forms of transport.
1 Like
I’m not entirely sure that the Uber in London issue will make that much difference. If Uber does lose its licence permanently, there are already other ride sharing firms operating. Uber drivers will just cross over to another platform, I expect.
1 Like
I guess we will see… I wish the Mayor would set stricter goals for black cabs as well. Still tiny amounts of electric black cabs on the street. Only 2.5k electric ones are on the street… with 20k still diesel… auch.
2 Likes
Growing, though. They’ve only been available for a short time, relatively speaking. I do see more and more of them.
I would hope they would push for a 2-3 year deadline to have them completely phased out. Incredible how they can just idle at ranks all day and nobody seems to have a problem…
It really would be great if they could find a way to do that.
There should be some help (maybe there already is, I don’t know) for those cabbies who bought new cabs before electric powered cabs were available.
Black cabs over a certain age are no longer being given new licenses and so they’ll be phased out over time. I think alongside that TFL are paying cabbies to take their cabs off them so that’ll help get reduce the number on the street.
I guess the difficulty is that you can’t just ban them because you’ll have a lot of angry cabbies, and you can’t buy all the existing cabbies because some smart alec will find a money making scheme in that. Also the new electric ones are pricey as hell.
1 Like
Well of course they will be pricey if there is no competition and only one company is allowed to source vehicles…
The whole black cab system is outdated and needs serious changes… starting with attitude…
You’re not a fan, are you? 
1 Like
This is a good idea. When I was in LA we were riding Lime at least 3x a day for a week. With this plan in just a week you’d save $16 on a 3-ride a day average.
2 Likes
Digging the new custom colours for Unagi. These are well priced, as well. If you’re looking to buy, and want something a little higher end than the M365 or the ES2, this is well worth a look.
I believe Pure Scooters sell these in the UK, too.