My moment of insight came last week when the CEO of an IT company came to meet me at my office - I met him outside as he was parking up his Lime-S scooter. A tipping point has been passed; urban transport is being revolutionised. All over the centre of Warsaw, I can see these e-scooters in use, or waiting for customers.
This is an ideal solution for that last kilometre or mile; to get from the Metro or mainline railway station to your final destination. Leave it (safely) and that's that. Payment is via mobile phone app.
Below: pics of e-scooters in use - exclusively with young people - no business leaders did I see today using this mode of transport. But in three years or so?
Below: the regulations say one person per scooter, and helmets should be worn, but hey, it's a carefree day in April. At least they're on a cycle path.
Below: the system runs on mobile phone apps. These allow users to find, unlock and be metered and charged for use of the scooter. Payment is via pre-paid card or credit card linked with the user's app.
The scooters are charged overnight by freelance contractors called 'chargers' or 'juicers' who track down scooters via a GPS-powered app, and charge them at home.
To get paid, the chargers must leave the scooters at designated spots by 7am the next morning, sending a photo to prove they've done it.
It is not a cheap form of transport. Moving at up to 15km/h, covering a kilometre takes around five-six minutes including traffic lights; unlocking the scooter incurs a charge (see below), so covering that kilometre will cost between 5-6zł. This is much more than Warsaw public transport, but you go exactly where you want, not where the bus or tram deposits you.
How they compare: electric scooters in Warsaw | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Operator
| Units | Start cost | Per minute | Availability | |
| Bird | 100 | 3.00 zł | 0.50 zł | 07:00-21:00 | |
| CityBee | 800 | 2.50 zł | 0.45 zł | 24 hours | |
| Hive | 400 | 2.50 zł | 0.45 zł | Daylight only | |
| Lime-S | 1,500 | 3.00 zł | 0.50 zł | 24 hours | |
Would I use this form of transport? No. I need the paces. A kilometre takes me around 12 minutes to walk - the scooter would get me there twice as quickly, but it's exercise I need, not small savings in time.
But overall, this is good thing. Young people are being weaned off car use; this is cool, this is hip. Although Poland generates most of its electricity by burning coal, other more enlightened economies don't (the UK hadn't burnt any coal to do so in the 80 days up to Easter this year). I hope in years to come the Polish energy mix will include far more electricity generated from renewable sources.
I remember well the hype preceding the launch of the Segway Personal Transporter, how it would revolutionise urban transport and thus city planning. It was not to be. All that technology (and weight) needed just so that two side-by-side wheels could be made to balance. And yet the traditional two-wheels-in-tandem configuration proves to be so much simpler. The Segway didn't do what it was meant to - but e-scooters may yet have a large civilisational impact. It's not so much adding a small electric motor to the scooter that did the magic - it was the global positioning satellite (GPS) needed to keep track of the fleet, and the mobile phone app that linked to the electric scooter will make the difference.
This time last year:
It's binary. There's either a God or there isn't...
This time three years ago:
Work on the railway line, work on the golf course
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3 comments:
You touched a raw nerve with me, Michael, with this post, but of course I write in good spirit and I don’t hold it against you, whether in your hat as an observer or even as an advocate of the rise of the infernal scooter (or the cycling scourge before it). Of course, wheeled on-pavement transport (to say it is ‘transport’ is to admit one is suffering from a peculiar form of aphasia) has gone too far to be reversed, and, if I can’t adapt, what’s left for me is to shut up. But am I seriously the only one who sees nothing but the anti-social, entirely selfish, maniacally aggressive, dangerously compulsive and fantastically delusional side of this development?
My spine is still in one piece, my head not concussed yet, but I am counting down to when they get smashed up spilling my guts and brain onto the pavement. If I survive, I will join the wheeled brigade in a wheelchair. Oh, and the police will have fined me too boot for reacting incorrectly in a moment of panic. Last year, I cracked the bones in my foot landing with one foot on the edge of a kerb when I jumped off to the side to avoid being mown down by a lycra-clad, helmeted psychopath barreling down on me on Powązkowska Street. The helmet, of course, is to avoid injury in collision with the bastards’ soft targets, you see.
I could choose to do my paces, which my job requires of me anyway, but I choose to use public transport whenever I can, for safety reasons. I have reviewed my relationship with cobble-stoned sections of the pavements too. If I stay in Warsaw for the weekend, I hole up at home. The sickening sensation of death being narrowly avoided which I get when 150 kilograms of over-pampered Warsaw flesh and sharp metal whiz by inches from me is enough to switch my vote to the throwbacks and Neanderthals from PIS. I’m growing more conservative by the hour, marshalling my Hitler thoughts in my head.
Meanwhile, the retarded terrorists are doing something for the environment, oh yes, even though car and bicycle ownership in Warsaw go hand in hand, and car ownership in Warsaw beats the world’s biggest cities hands down. Riding a bicycle serves many purposes: to appear cool, to assuage one’s conscience over run-away consumption, to indulge in a compulsive behavior akin to that of constantly fiddling with a mobile phone today, to work off the anger at a boss who is dumping on you in an overcrowded office. Saving the environment is a fiction entertained in the minds of brainwashed people, even if coincidentally the methane that escapes that tightly clad cyclist bottom is marginally less offensive than the car fumes beside.
You are not alone . Two feet should have priority over two wheels . Sadly this seems no longer the case .
The Lime scooters will do up to 28km/h, the speed of a confident cyclist. They're not really compatible with narrow pavements and pedestrians (better pushed by hand there), but where the streetscape allows, especially on cycle lanes and roads, they're really swift.
Yesterday I used one to get from my office on ul. Mazowiecka to Złote Tarasy to run a business errand. The 1.5km journey took just 8 minutes. I don't think any other form of transport could have been more efficient, and I say that as an experienced urban cyclist.
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