> Recently he got really focused on “micro-mobility” (ie, Bird/Lime scooters, etc) which hasn’t really been as earthshaking as he predicted
Mostly because of antisocial behavior of all sorts: people thinking that scooters were similar to bikes so you could drive them while wasted, random youth groups throwing them off of bridges, into waterways or otherwise destroying them "for the lulz", inconsiderate dumb fucks parking their scooters right where they stepped off, or companies that plastered scooters, bikes and cars over entire cities without coordinating with any authority beforehand.
All of that led to a massive amount of public resentment and subsequent regulation that impeded usage (e.g. no-park-here zones, speed limits during the night and sobriety tests to reduce the risk for drunkards, requirements to force people to submit parking photos), and on top of that come the sometimes ridiculous "unlock fees" or absurd pricing of 20-30 ct/min or more. Public transport tickets cost less than that.
Part of this is the companies themselves to blame:
Scooter and bike share companies routinely parked (and still park) bikes and scooters directly in the path of pedestrians because they know that the more visible their devices are, the more likely someone will use them.
Additionally, as you point out the pricing these companies charge started out very low but have escalated quickly. But this isn't always true - micromobility can replace ownership if done right: Companies with presumably less VC funding, such as Donkey Republic or Forest have different pricing models that are still affordable. In Donkey Republic's case, you can sometimes sign up for a $10/month subscription with minimum three months (equivalent in local currency) where you can then reserve a bike and take it home with you or park it near your house but blocked from others renting it. You pay a discounted fee to ride it, and an even smaller fee to reserve it.
Cities are also to blame:
Better than no-parking-zones are cities like Paris where they created parking spaces specifically for bikes and scooters. You rarely see problems in these cities. Some places require designated parking areas without making the space in the roads for them - those are much more problematic because the parking spaces fill and spill over onto where people would prefer to walk or drive.
But users are indeed part of the problem:
The number of times I've seen unsafe drivers of any vehicle, or two people on one scooter, or scooters or bikes going the wrong way down a bike lane... the problems are actually endless.
But the problems aren't always with scooters or e-bikes themselves. Sometimes it's an ecosystem problem, and sometimes the rental companies are too short-sighted.
And regulation isn't always bad:
As a scooter rider myself, I look forward to the day when the 2027 E.U. law requiring removable batteries might take effect in the private scooter market. It's silly that so many high end scooter brands aren't making batteries removable simply because they don't want to have to deal with shipping batteries and user-replaceable parts and the inherent design costs of a removable battery.
>Better than no-parking-zones are cities like Paris where they created parking spaces specifically for bikes and scooters. You rarely see problems in these cities.
I’m aware. But it wasn’t because people are tripping over scooters like they do in cities without parking spaces. In many Canadian cities, accessibility groups are fighting rental scooters because of a perceived risk of tripping hazards when dedicated street parking zones can easily alleviate this risk.
We’re drifting away from the original topic, but I suspect it has less to do with antisocial behavior and more to do with saturating the intersection of people interested in riding on scooters and places where scooter riding is a plausible mode of transportation.
Horace (and the various VC firms that dumped money on e-scooter companies) probably assumed that intersection had more people in it than seems to be playing out in reality.
Anyone interested in riding a scooter “well” just bought their own.
Sure, maybe they rented for a bit to see what it was like, but once you agree it’s a good option it is not insanely expensive (or heavy) to buy your own.
Mostly because of antisocial behavior of all sorts: people thinking that scooters were similar to bikes so you could drive them while wasted, random youth groups throwing them off of bridges, into waterways or otherwise destroying them "for the lulz", inconsiderate dumb fucks parking their scooters right where they stepped off, or companies that plastered scooters, bikes and cars over entire cities without coordinating with any authority beforehand.
All of that led to a massive amount of public resentment and subsequent regulation that impeded usage (e.g. no-park-here zones, speed limits during the night and sobriety tests to reduce the risk for drunkards, requirements to force people to submit parking photos), and on top of that come the sometimes ridiculous "unlock fees" or absurd pricing of 20-30 ct/min or more. Public transport tickets cost less than that.