Scooter Rentals to Take Over SoMa in San Francisco
San Francisco has a cool new way to get around – electric scooters. It’s a new addition that aims to improve public transportation for those who are on the fly and want an alternative to get around the dense city more conventionally as opposed to cars, buses, bikes, taxis or on foot. This new idea has the potential to make a nationwide splash at U.S. cities. Each scooter rental comes with insurance in case there is a motorcycle accident.
A small group of like-minded individuals that came up with this idea call themselves Keating. Their mantra is to allow people to rent electric scooters. Scoot Network will launch on Wednesday in San Francisco with an initial network of 60 scooters dispersed at four stations at the city’s SoMa neighborhood.
With at least $775,000 from angel investors Scoot Networks has plans to develop a network that will grid the city, such plan could make it easier for members of the program to commute more effectively.
SF Gate is calling the program a Zipcar for electric scooters. The only difference is that riding a scooter is much easier to learn than driving a car. “I was trying to think of what could be both fast and cheap,” Keating, the company’s chief executive officer told the publication.
Keating was trained to be an urban planner, eager to ride the wave of public innovation that is sweeping the globe. From commuters that take a part of car-sharing services and technologies that allow people to check exact bus and train arrival times on their phone, he wants to leave his mark. According to him there is a more holistic approach to combining present technologies. “None of them seemed to have the speed, the affordability and the sustainability all in one package,” Keating said.
After spending a summer in China, he discovered that the city of San Francisco could somehow benefit from his trip. Present Chinese city roads are packed with electric scooters, traffic and people. And the best way to get around are scooter, they are cheap, reliable, inexpensive to charge and could be parked almost anywhere. “You never have to circle for parking,” Keating said. “They’re just the perfect little city vehicle.”
Being part of the network is easy, all that people have to do is sign up on the company’s website and create an account using a driver’s license and credit card information. Then an appointment is set with a representative from the company who gives them a quick run-through of the equipment and approves the rider once they have made sure they could ride the scooter. Once the initial process is done, the rest is easy, just reserve a bike using a smart phone app and that’s it, pick up the scooter and ride.
Reviewed by Chris H. in 2012.