Rent spray bikes and scooters: care how you steer, they are rented after all

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I’m ever afraid of a flat swap bike again. Blue frame bike rentals seem to park a little more horizontally than their privately owned brothers and sisters.

Before they gave up, the Mobike and Obike bikes made it even hotter. Mesh bikes are shared bikes that you don’t have to take back to a specific location, like a public transport bike, or that you have to take back to certain places in the city, like Paris Velib, but can leave behind everywhere. At least, from a road bike provider. The municipalities and their residents soon thought otherwise, when suddenly people had to meander across the sidewalk between shared bikes. You can see the same corner behavior with the larger shared scooters from the Felyx, Check or Go.

Next year we will witness the next micro-mobility boom in the Netherlands: electric sprinklers. Scooters have already been introduced in many foreign cities in recent years. Or, view: deposit. Last summer I saw scooters from at least four suppliers in Stockholm. In the city of Vasteras, an 85-year-old man was killed when he walked on a road Scooter part lying on the bike path Drove. City authorities are now looking for solutions to stray transportation, such as not allowing parking in certain areas Geographical mediators, or by defining the so-called drop zones.

Some, such as architect Thomas Rao, see leasing or leasing as a revenue model that can ensure products last longer and are therefore more sustainable. Because if you rent the washing machine from the manufacturer, it will have more benefit in that it will last as long as possible than if you were to buy it. Depending on the guarantee granted, of course.

But there is another side to lack of ownership. In the case of partial transfer, users are less interested in handling it properly. “Don’t be cute, it’s a rental,‘is the English expression. “Care about how you are directed, he is set after all.” Logical. Blowing your bike off the sidewalks and dumping it on the street can result in costly repairs. If you do the same with a shared bike or squeak, there is a small chance that someone will recover from you. This encourages less careful driving. and parking behavior. In addition, after you as a user put the transport away, someone else can push it or smash it again, because it gets in your way, or simply out of spontaneity.

Basically this is it: the less ownership, the more you park carelessly. Your bike is usually clean, the lease wants Swapfiets to lie flat and it seems like lying in front of the scooter is second nature. A nuisance to the environment, but it’s also not good for the longevity of those products. Perhaps ownership has its advantages, too.

Jasper van Kuijk on Twitter: Tweet embed