https://nitter.net/DavidNHarvey/status/1740869714522595760

  • BovineUniversity
    ·
    6 months ago

    The bikes aren't stupid; they didn't block anything, their riders did. They work great in places with good infrastructure and a conscientious community.

    • GinAndJuche
      ·
      6 months ago

      and a conscientious community

      So the majority of the west is eliminated from consideration

      • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
        ·
        6 months ago

        Probably up to localities to legislate that rental bikes must have designated return locations and fine the companies for violations. Hitting the techbro's bank accounts is the only way to make them think about externalities.

        • GinAndJuche
          ·
          6 months ago

          The only socially acceptable way. Giving every tech bro a e-biking funeral where they get cast off to sea on a raft of lithium ion batteries would certainly be satisfying

    • alexandra_kollontai [she/her]
      ·
      6 months ago

      The bikes are stupid because money spent to ride them is going away to a foreign (i.e. American) tech company. It is another marker of the corporate encroaching itself into public property. Often these vehicles arrive on the streets unconsensually.

      • BovineUniversity
        ·
        6 months ago

        Don't most if not all vehicles?

        I'd rather a nonconsensual shared bike on my street that I can use than a nonconsensual private car that I can't.

    • oregoncom [he/him]
      ·
      6 months ago

      The bikes are stupid because they were designed to be left on the sidewalk instead of having designated charging/parking areas. The city bikes are better and were designed to be left at docking locations, which also solves the charging issues.

      • tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        ·
        6 months ago

        Where I was at when they had the city-owned bikes, no one would use them because the locations to drop them off were not where anyone wanted to go, they were nearly unused and stolen often. When lime bike came they were everywhere and hugely popular, we did have the problems with the sidewalks being blocked though and I moved a bike at least a couple times to help an elderly person get past it. If the city could coordinate a program better it could be great, it's almost like they've done it bad on purpose just to help encourage more privatization, which is a common tactic.

    • Egon [they/them]
      ·
      6 months ago

      And the riders are blocking things because the system encourages that act. The system is therefore stupid. The system is the bike rental

      • BovineUniversity
        ·
        6 months ago

        The system works fine in other places, it's clearly the actors at fault.