As many of you might already know the circus came to town. It started with a few dockless electric scooters and as soon as they could see that it was a hit among adult commuters and teenagers alike. They opened up the floodgates and electric scooters started pouring in showing up in numbers on every single block. Sure there were some issues with people tossing them on the street and just leaving them parked literally everywhere.
Well, I wanted to dive into this new way of commuting as I have been glancing at electric scooters for quite some time now. I wanted to switch out my bad public transportation commutes for a more enjoyable one.
So I decided to use Bird and Lime to rent a scooter and get to work for an entire week
My one-week e-scooter commute
My first thought was that I might have some problem finding a scooter close to me. That wasn’t the case and rarely did I have to walk more than a block in order to find one. Most of the days there were multiple rides parked just outside my apartment building. So my hesitations to using this service were quickly fended off.
The second thing that made me a bit hesitant was the amount of juice the battery would have. If it was enough to let me go all the way to work. Sure it's a bit costly to rent a scooter every single day for longer rides, but as this was just a test to see if I would be happy to buy my own scooter. I felt that the cost outweigh the potential loss of buying a scooter without any knowledge. Experience and knowledge most often come at a cost just look at university!
As I go to work at 6 AM there was always plenty of juice to get me there. On my way home on the other hand, twice did I have to go a bit further in getting something with enough juice to get me all the way home on the same scooter. After a few days, I figured out that I needed at least 50% to get all the way home, mostly because the same battery percentage would vary in miles.
As an example: 50% on one scooter might give me 7 miles while on another I would only get 5 miles even though the percentage displayed were the same. The battery on the later probably didn’t hold the charge equally as good due to being used more frequently.
What I think about electric scooter rentals
They are somewhat awesome. I did have a few hiccups, but were at an early stage with the development of legislation and evolving of business I couldn’t expect it to work better. Especially thinking about the high pressure that is on lowering our co2 outlet I cannot think of a greater way to commute in the city.
However, if you’re an adult looking to utilize an electric scooter on a daily basis then I suggest that you read up on the numerous reasons why adults should have one here: Envyride. Then go out and buy one of your own, you’ll end up saving money in the long run. And you will always be sure there is enough juice to get you where you want to go.
The final verdict
Overall I think my first experience with dockless electric scooters was very successful. I am now in the market of buying my own unit and there are some fairly cheap scooters available now that might actually do the job. The Bird scooter that I used was a Xiaomi m365 and the Lime I think was a Segway ES2. Not entirely sure though. They both worked very well but I liked Bird more due to their pneumatic tires. It did fend of minor bumps in the road fairly well.
I would highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t tested an electric scooter before to do so. They are very fun to use and it’s actually really easy to learn.
