Now, these little scooters are efficient to take someone from point A to B, cost very little and are rented via an app from your phone. They sound, really, kind of great.
The downside is you do look like a child on one. And if you think about it, it's a toy for children. Now somehow it's for grown men and women to use. Still effective to get you a little further if you're tired from walking.
The main problem is that these scooters are left on the street anywhere. They aren't locked to anything like a bike would be or kept in some sort of storage. They just litter sidewalks or wherever there last rider put them. They're locked, so no one can just use them, you have to unlock them via the app. So some people place them down nicely and other just put them in the way.
We ourselves have seen them clog the streets, making it hard for drivers to make turns or even get past them as many people riding them are completely new at it and aren't quite good at driving them.
The other major problem is the state does require you to wear a helmet when on scooters, which seemingly no one does. That would mean you would have to be lugging around a helmet, which you just don't want to have to hold onto all day.
Santa Monica and other places around SoCal have law enforcement wasting their time giving tickets, which can be up to $200. A reminder, you can't bring them on the Santa Monica bike path on the beach. It's a no, no.
Now, many people have gotten angry at Bird and Lime and have started to trash them. We spotted two threads devoted to this on r/Los Angles of Reddit just yesterday. You have
which had a lot of comments bashing the scooters.
And yesterday, our local Fox News discovered an Instagram called Bird Graveyard, which has photos of Bird scooters being destroyed or broken. The account is devoted to showing of the hate for these adult toys.
While, it hasn't been reported yet, here in LA, to our knowledge, they are get sh*t on in San Fran.
