Scoot in San Francisco
Monday, November 17th, 2014OK, this will be my last blog post dealing with our recent trip to California. But this was the one I actually planned before we left.
Just days before we headed for the West Coast I happened upon an article about Scoot Networks, which is an outfit that is set up in San Francisco offering electric scooter rentals. From what the article I read had to say I expected to see a lot of these easily recognizable red scooters in the mix of traffic. I was intrigued.
Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that I have an interest in electric motorcycles in general and a personal interest–as in I want one–in electric scooters. So the idea that someone is renting them, and at a very low price, definitely caught my eye. And it was right where we were headed. Cool.
I didn’t see a single Scoot (as opposed to scooters generically) on the streets. And it wasn’t until the night before we left, with time in the morning only to get to the airport, that I noticed that just two blocks from our B&B there was a charging/parking site where four Scoots sat. So I went over quickly in the morning and got that photo above.
Nevertheless, in a crowded, busy city like this, scooters are a great way to get around quickly and easily. And of course it’s all handled with an app.
The way you use Scoot is you create an account and then when you want to ride one you use your smartphone to see where near you there is one available. You then plug your phone into the Scoot and off you go. There are three levels of membership but if you plan to do it regularly the only rational option would seem to be the top-level package, Scoot Pass. For $29 a month, with two months free so a $290 cost for a year, the first 30 minutes of any ride is no additional charge. If you’re just getting around the city, that’s probably going to be most of your rides right there. Then for anything past the first 30 minutes it’s $1.50 for each additional 30 minutes between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. and just $0.25 per 30 minutes from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.
We’re talking cheap. Just for comparison, we took buses a lot while in the city and each time I got on a bus it cost me $2.25.
Now, these Scoots are all single-seaters, so if Judy and I had wanted to go somewhere on them she would have had to rent one, too. She doesn’t ride so that would not have worked. There’s no way she would have wanted to learn to ride a scooter in the middle of the San Francisco congestion. But imagine if you lived there and could pick one up close to home and drop it close to work. You could pay $290 a year and that would be your total cost of commuting. Plus, you’d be on a scooter, and that’s fun!
I don’t know how successful the business is. As I said, I didn’t see any of them on the street. And the scooter business seems to be funny. In places such as Key West there are lots of scooter rentals and it is absolutely the best way to get around that very congested town. And they do land-office business. On the other hand, here in Denver, ScooTours Denver rents scooters and I’m not sure how much business they manage to do. I’ve dealt with those folks in the past, and they advertise on this site, but my recent attempts to contact them have not been successful. So I don’t know; I hope they’re at least making enough to continue in business.
So no, I didn’t have the opportunity to ride one while we were out there. But maybe next time you’re out there you might want to give it a try. And now you know they exist.
Biker Quote for Today
He was so slow, there were bugs on the back of his helmet.