Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Monday June 11 2018, @10:39PM   Printer-friendly
from the just-wheelin'-it dept.

Submitted via IRC for Fnord666

Uber and Lyft are reportedly battling it out to buy Citi Bike's parent company, Motivate

Lyft might have thought its plan to buy bike-sharing company Motivate was a done deal. Uber, it seems, has other plans. Reports last week suggested that Lyft had struck a deal for upwards of $250 million to buy Motivate. But Uber is considering muscling in with its own offer, Axios reports.

Motivate is behind Citi Bike in New York and Ford GoBike in San Francisco, along with bike-sharing programs in other cities including Boston, Chicago, and Washington, DC. Commuters used its bikes 3.18 million times last month.

As the battlegrounds get more intense for the companies' non-ridesharing offerings, Uber and Lyft are exploring electric scooters and, yes, bike sharing. Uber recently bought Jump, which has an exclusive permit to run a dockless bike share system in San Francisco, so Motivate would expand its portfolio of urban services.

Both Uber and Lyft have reportedly applied for licenses to run electric scooters in San Francisco; scooters were recently pulled from the city's streets pending a licensing process, in part because they've proven a nuisance for many. There are more ways than cars to get people around cities, and both companies seem to be focusing more on alternative transport methods. Bike sharing, at the very least, would be a stopgap until flying cabs come along.

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2018/06/08/uber-motivate-citi-bike-acquisition-lyft-bikesharing/


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Monday June 11 2018, @11:35PM (12 children)

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Monday June 11 2018, @11:35PM (#691662) Homepage

    " scooters were recently pulled from the city's streets pending a licensing process, in part because they've proven a nuisance for many. "

    Ahh, Bay Area NIMBY hypocrisy again foils a good idea. Of course it's an awesome idea, and those scooters are fun. One problem around here I see with app-rented scooters and bikes is that nihilistic violent minorities keep trashing them for no reason. They will try to break the locks off to steal the bikes, and if they don't succeed, they will kick the rims in and yank the seats out of spite.

    The point I am trying to make here is that since Bay-Area NIMBYs don't like them, and neither do minorities, then we should bus all the minorities and other illegals into the Bay Area.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Interesting=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12 2018, @12:45AM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12 2018, @12:45AM (#691695)

    One problem around here I see with app-rented scooters and bikes is that nihilistic violent minorities keep trashing them for no reason.

    That is what happens when you have the tech industry, it attracts violent nihilistic white minority hipsters. But the nice thing about the bike/scooter options is that you don't have to worry about being shot/raped by the low-life scab cabbie who's driving his own vehicle, complete with his own armory.

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday June 12 2018, @01:06AM (6 children)

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Tuesday June 12 2018, @01:06AM (#691711) Homepage

      Cabbies are not violent. They're just so goddamn overpriced, and rideshare services rightly so took our their knees. The funny thing about cabbies is that capitalism (rideshare services) is a system which actually worked for the good of the common-man this time. Before rideshare services, it was a two-hour wait if they even showed up at all. But that would imply that they would be on equal footing and be more aggressive to compete, and they could.

      But that isn't the case. The case is that they were offered a cushy life here, away from their African origins, for helping and continuing to help the CIA with its African intelligence-gathering overseas in Eithiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, etc.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12 2018, @01:20AM (5 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12 2018, @01:20AM (#691716)

        rideshare services rightly so took our to their knees.

        FTFY!
        That's what I'm talking about! The forced oral raping! It's like Starpuck's in "Idiocracy" (which stars Ethanol_fueled in some of the opening sequences,BTW.)

        • (Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday June 12 2018, @01:24AM (4 children)

          by frojack (1554) on Tuesday June 12 2018, @01:24AM (#691719) Journal

          Oh look, a troll trying to troll the king of trolls.

          --
          No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
          • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday June 12 2018, @01:41AM (3 children)

            by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Tuesday June 12 2018, @01:41AM (#691731) Homepage

            I do not deserve that title: I stood on the shoulders of giants:

            The original Slashdot trolling culture. Pity that the people in charge thought that they had to bring and end to it.

            • (Score: 4, Informative) by aristarchus on Tuesday June 12 2018, @01:56AM (2 children)

              by aristarchus (2645) on Tuesday June 12 2018, @01:56AM (#691745) Journal

              EF is not a troll. He is just an American Conservative. You know, vaguely libertarian, pro-market and cheap, racist and misogynist, not very well educated, provincial and the product of a patronage system like that which placed John McCain.

              • (Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday June 12 2018, @03:11AM (1 child)

                by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Tuesday June 12 2018, @03:11AM (#691759) Homepage

                You can call me "cheap." You can call me "racist and misogynist." You can call me "not very well-educated."

                But Don't you dare even think of comparing me to the traitor John McCain. I come from a family of the proudest warriors America has to offer. I am a proud patriot. I am on your side. Maybe not yours, fifth-columnist scum. But my loyalty belongs to the United States of America.

                • (Score: 3, Informative) by aristarchus on Tuesday June 12 2018, @06:29AM

                  by aristarchus (2645) on Tuesday June 12 2018, @06:29AM (#691803) Journal

                  Triggered! My African forbears spit on your treason, Ethanol_fueled!

                  (Oh, for those wondering, the island of Samos had a long relation to Egypt. They had maths, and stuff. Smarter than those white barbarians to the north who never got enough vitamin D, back in the day before fortified milk, and whiteness. [theconversation.com])

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12 2018, @12:48AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 12 2018, @12:48AM (#691698)

    The problems according to Gizmodo: "they're often strewn aside carelessly, blocking the public right-of-way, thus making it especially difficult for wheelchairs and those with disabilities to move past them. Further, scooter riders are using them on the sidewalk, which is not only illegal but dangerous."

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday June 12 2018, @01:13AM (2 children)

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Tuesday June 12 2018, @01:13AM (#691714) Homepage

      And just what percentage of the population in San Fran uses wheelchairs? Answer: an extremely negligible one. And the last sentence you wrote outlines the reason why people hate cyclists: Douchebags who ride in the streets outside automobiles don't know how to. San Franciscan streets are even more impacted with traffic than where I live. You really think it's a good idea for having the streets even more clogged than they usually are? San Franciscan sidewalks are pretty goddamn open compared to here. Their sidewalks could stand to have a bit more traffic. The only times San Francisco sidewalks are cluttered is when the gays come out of the woodwork to have their naked street-orgies.

      But if you're paying a million bucks a month to live in a sweet Victorian, I can see why you would be annoyed enough to complain to city hall about the occasional errant scooter laying on its side outside your door.

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday June 12 2018, @08:31AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 12 2018, @08:31AM (#691828) Journal

        And the last sentence you wrote outlines the reason why people hate cyclists: Douchebags who ride in the streets outside automobiles don't know how to.

        Ah, the God given right to drive a car shall not be infringed by those douchebag cyclists who don't know how to properly ride in the presence of automobiles**.

        ---

        ** The proper way to ride a bicycle is either:

        1. under the wheels of an automobile; or
        2. with the bike mounted in the tray of at least a pickup truck (if not a fully blown Mack trailer tractor), while a normal person does the driving

        (grin)

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 2) by darkfeline on Tuesday June 12 2018, @06:54PM

        by darkfeline (1030) on Tuesday June 12 2018, @06:54PM (#692051) Homepage

        If providing accommodations to the disabled really gets your knickers in a twist, banning electric scooters should be pretty low on your list of things to fight. What about building requirements for ramps, elevators, disabled access, and reserved parking spots?

        --
        Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!