I take paratransit locally on Long Island and I have hip dysplasia and mild cerebral palsy, so I very much understand what it means to fight for sidewalks. My neighborhood on LI barely has sidewalks in the first place! So for sidewalks in Pittsburgh to be blocked by parked scooters, I understand how they felt. But this is why it's important to have pedestrian-friendly and bike-friendly environments with protected bike lanes and multiple last mile options that are affordable, accessible, and convenient so that so many people aren't reliant on just Spin and those who have disabilities aren't stuck taking sidewalks, and it was really on Spin for not having everything in docks. Because if it was, then people would be able to responsibly use scooters, and those in the disability community would be able to use the sidewalks. But hey, at least they didn't go with the microtransit/on-demand option...which is what places like Arlington, TX and Jersey City has gone with, a service called Via. Jersey City did so for better transit service to the further parts of the city like The Heights and Greenville, despite the fact the NJT 87 bus already serves both The Heights and Greenville with very good headways (not to mention it serves Journal Square and Hoboken Terminal which are hubs), and The Heights has reliable bus corridors which are Central Ave, Kennedy Blvd, and Palisade Ave (the latter two have frequent dollar vans/jitneys alongside NJT). Suffolk Transit has two on-demand zones in the Hamptons (Southampton and East Hampton/Montauk) but they did so because they don't justify running ordinary routes due to low ridership in a very rural part of LI.
If cars would be judged by the same scale as any other mobility, even searching for one online would seen as terrorism… How often were cars blocking a sidewalk during that time? How many streets don't even have one, to give cars more space? How many people died due to cars collisions?
The thing with the last mile is that you don't know where it is and there's not enough demand to serve every last mile end. IE, you can't require scooter docks unless you put one on every single block or possible end point. That's why it's a problem. Sounds like the disabled advocates solution wasn't "give me more money for paratransit buses" but merely "scooters bad", even though a bunch of non-disabled people used them. So now there's nothing. What an improvement.
Yup. In Dallas we went through this first with dockless bikes and then dockless scooters but city hall basically allowed an infinite amount of companies and supply. They end up just being a toy/novelty at best, but mostly just litter and a dangerous nuisance at worst. Folks don’t use them for their commute, it’s mostly used for leisure and usually in a dangerous manner.
Kid: Mom, can we see the Flatiron Building? Mom: We have the Flatiron Building at home! The Flatiron Building at home: 0:08 The wig and the light blue shirt to dress up as Alex was incredible. Well played!
Well, if your city creates a "universal basic mobility" program that has nothing you can use and actively makes your life worse, I think it's worth getting a little pissed...
I used to use Lime scooters (and all of the other wild brands) to get around Austin back in the late 2010's and after the pandemic when I was car-free. They were super convenient to use but they were definitely a bit of an eyesore and absolutely a hazard to pedestrians and cyclists; they'd just be piled up haphazardly on sidewalks and in bike lanes. It would be cool to get people out of their cars in favor of microtransit options like these, but I can't help but think about how those scooters are just going to end up in the river or just in a landfill within a few years. Cool idea, but the execution left something to be desired.
Next year you should a April Fools video about Baltimore with you playing a character of a stereotypical Baltimorean obsessed with the flag of Maryland, Crabs, old bay, National Bohemian beer, the Ravens and the Orioles examining Baltimore’s transit system and dunking on Pittsburgh whenever possible.
@@ClassyWhale I mean hey, they're proud of their state and I can't fault them for that, Maryland cuisine is good and their flag is one of the best! Though it's the same energy as suggesting to speedrun the Staten Island Railway, speaking in an exaggerated New York Italian accent, and doing a bunch of references to Impractical Jokers...
Why kill this in its cradle? Yeah there’s problems with people leaving these in the way of accessibility spaces, and we absolutely need to make accommodations for those with disabilities, but why try to get rid of these entirely? We should add additional accessible transit options for those with disabilities not remove these just because not everyone can use them. Those are incredible ridership numbers as well
Everything about the pilot program was a disaster, half of which was because the city just sucks for this kind of transit. Many of the roads are in abysmal condition and the sidewalks, though specifically excluded under the terms of the app, aren't much better (when they even exist at all... in a CITY). That's all before you get to how the users abused the hell out of those scooters: jumping in and out of traffic, on and off sidewalks, going the wrong way on roads, leaving the scooters just any old place (particularly in bike lanes and blocking sidewalks)... I don't think I ever saw a single rider wearing a helmet. The _only_ thing this program had going for it was the usage numbers. Neither the city nor the customers were ready to handle the scooters responsibly. Which is a shame! I was _all for it_ when it first started. After two years of putting up with the irresponsible riders and the constant mess they caused, I didn't even miss them when they went away. They just aren't the solution Pittsburgh needs.
I’m confused. Most cities have bikes, not scooters. Bikes are much easier and safer to use. Why purchase scooters? Is it because they’re cheaper and smaller than bikes? Amsterdam has a network of bike lanes and bike parking at train stations.
Great job on thiis video it was very thorough and educational . You did a great job touching on the accesiblity and equity issue such a program presents. I guess Pittsburgh's experience is a cautionary tale about leaning too heavily on tech industry offerings for long-standing problems and doing the homework with inclusive community engagement.
I've seen e-scooters and dockless bike share used extensively in Australian cities (Brisbane has tons of e-scooters from Lime and Bird while Sydney has lots of Lime e-bikes). I'm curious why this seems to be less of a problem down-under while North America is just unable to make it work. Are Americans (and to a lesser extent Canadians) unable to behave themselves as well as Aussies? Is the infrastructure better (doesn't seem like it, I think Toronto has more bike lanes)? A big difference I notice is that Aussie infrastructure seems to be generally in better condition (fewer potholes) and that road traffic enforcement is hard core and strict, so makes car drivers more careful (borderline scared). Example: there are red light and/or speed cameras every few km or blocks on city streets and motorways, there are also bus lane, seatbelt, and mobile phone detection cameras in the state. On holidays they have double demerits. My parents and I were driving home from a beach out of town yesterday (Easter Monday) and in our urban neighbourhood adjacent to Sydney's CBD, police were directing cars to pull over for random breath testing.
I just got around to watching you four's April Fool's vids and I love the gimmick of parodying each other! Though, I do have to say the blonde wig is a bit on the nose lol A for effort either way!
The purpose of transit advocacy should be to create as many riders as possible, and I really don't think PPT is up to that idea. The disability issues with Spin are bad and should be fixed with docking stations. But to cheer the end of a program that served literally half the city's population makes me question whether they see themselves as transit advocates or as a general purpose disability/social justice/lefty kind of org.
Complex problem. I think fixing this would require a lot of different teams of people with different areas of expertise, as Caleb pointed out many issues. How good is Pittsburgh at doing that?
I think you put an extra 0 in that $700,000 graphic. Or you meant to say 7 million. I can't swear which one it is, but I think the first option makes more sense. I highly doubt anyone gave Pittsburgh 7 million dollars for a few E scooters. That would be ridiculous. Of course, I wouldn't rule it out entirely. Ridiculous things do happen in transit funding surprisingly frequently.
I hate those scooters. I'm a blind person. And let me tell you I walked down plenty of streets in Chicago and I found those things at street corners. Blocking the sidewalk number of times. And yes there were a couple of times that I wanted to pick one of those things up and throw it into the Chicago river.
Sorry but last mile isn't really a problem. You just need to have a society that isn't so adverse to walking. E-scooters and bike share are useful to fill transit gaps and can form a valuable part of mobility. But the true last (half) mile isn't really a problem
The advocacy group seems to be making the perfect the enemy of the good here. And it really does annoy me sometimes groups like this seem to have this "if we can't use it, then nobody can use it!" attitude. No, public e-scooters are not going to work for everyone, especially those with disabilities. Neither do public bicycles, they just have a better image. It's clear e-scooters are very popular, plus they take up less street space than a bicycle and are lighter and cheaper than an equivalent e-bike. If they get more cars off the road, then that will benefit disabled people who will be able to have faster trips on paratransit. I get the bad parking causing problems, but this isn't something that's unique to scooters, in my city you see public bicycles blocking the pavement too. It's 100% a human behaviour problem, and getting rid of programs like that entirely is punishing all users for bad actors. And there are certainly ways that would go a long way to fixing that, like fines and bans for improper parking or even rewards for returning scooters to the dock.
Thing is: There are FAR more people, who can't drive a car for medical reasons than there are people, who can't ride a bicycle. Yet these groups are usually pure car advocates.
Finally, an Alex we can count on to actually post.
I'm starving for content, Alex
Gosh, those ridership numbers don't lie! It seems like maybe docked scooters would be a good middle ground solution.
Here in New Brunswick, we're enjoying our undocked anarchy scooters just fine, thank you.
Issue is at bars hours of 10p-3am where you got drunks wearing between traffic here in Cleveland
All of the transit youtubers are uploading today and I'm loving it
I take paratransit locally on Long Island and I have hip dysplasia and mild cerebral palsy, so I very much understand what it means to fight for sidewalks. My neighborhood on LI barely has sidewalks in the first place! So for sidewalks in Pittsburgh to be blocked by parked scooters, I understand how they felt. But this is why it's important to have pedestrian-friendly and bike-friendly environments with protected bike lanes and multiple last mile options that are affordable, accessible, and convenient so that so many people aren't reliant on just Spin and those who have disabilities aren't stuck taking sidewalks, and it was really on Spin for not having everything in docks. Because if it was, then people would be able to responsibly use scooters, and those in the disability community would be able to use the sidewalks.
But hey, at least they didn't go with the microtransit/on-demand option...which is what places like Arlington, TX and Jersey City has gone with, a service called Via. Jersey City did so for better transit service to the further parts of the city like The Heights and Greenville, despite the fact the NJT 87 bus already serves both The Heights and Greenville with very good headways (not to mention it serves Journal Square and Hoboken Terminal which are hubs), and The Heights has reliable bus corridors which are Central Ave, Kennedy Blvd, and Palisade Ave (the latter two have frequent dollar vans/jitneys alongside NJT). Suffolk Transit has two on-demand zones in the Hamptons (Southampton and East Hampton/Montauk) but they did so because they don't justify running ordinary routes due to low ridership in a very rural part of LI.
If cars would be judged by the same scale as any other mobility, even searching for one online would seen as terrorism…
How often were cars blocking a sidewalk during that time? How many streets don't even have one, to give cars more space? How many people died due to cars collisions?
Advocacy response: Get rid of this instead of fix this
"we have cars and taxis/Uber, that's the only transportation needed". (have heard comments like this from disability advocates even here in Europe…).
The thing with the last mile is that you don't know where it is and there's not enough demand to serve every last mile end. IE, you can't require scooter docks unless you put one on every single block or possible end point. That's why it's a problem.
Sounds like the disabled advocates solution wasn't "give me more money for paratransit buses" but merely "scooters bad", even though a bunch of non-disabled people used them. So now there's nothing. What an improvement.
Yup. In Dallas we went through this first with dockless bikes and then dockless scooters but city hall basically allowed an infinite amount of companies and supply. They end up just being a toy/novelty at best, but mostly just litter and a dangerous nuisance at worst. Folks don’t use them for their commute, it’s mostly used for leisure and usually in a dangerous manner.
You need a Trailerbus that takes bikes,mobility scooters etc.
Kid: Mom, can we see the Flatiron Building?
Mom: We have the Flatiron Building at home!
The Flatiron Building at home: 0:08
The wig and the light blue shirt to dress up as Alex was incredible. Well played!
Well that's 753,233 Miles in Transit of a complicated last mile situation... Nailed the content style!
Stories like this make me hate anti-progress "disability advocates" so much.
Well, if your city creates a "universal basic mobility" program that has nothing you can use and actively makes your life worse, I think it's worth getting a little pissed...
If I were Pogoh I would make sure every museum and tourist attraction in Pittsburgh have bike stations
I used to use Lime scooters (and all of the other wild brands) to get around Austin back in the late 2010's and after the pandemic when I was car-free. They were super convenient to use but they were definitely a bit of an eyesore and absolutely a hazard to pedestrians and cyclists; they'd just be piled up haphazardly on sidewalks and in bike lanes. It would be cool to get people out of their cars in favor of microtransit options like these, but I can't help but think about how those scooters are just going to end up in the river or just in a landfill within a few years. Cool idea, but the execution left something to be desired.
What a great video Sir!
My knees couldn't handle a scooter. What I really want is rentable e-bikes. The bikes available now are way too sparsely located to be useful.
Great look - definitely agree that there's a time and place for scooters, but nothing will be a silver bullet
Next year you should a April Fools video about Baltimore with you playing a character of a stereotypical Baltimorean obsessed with the flag of Maryland, Crabs, old bay, National Bohemian beer, the Ravens and the Orioles examining Baltimore’s transit system and dunking on Pittsburgh whenever possible.
That's... specific. Username checks out 😂
@@ClassyWhale I mean hey, they're proud of their state and I can't fault them for that, Maryland cuisine is good and their flag is one of the best! Though it's the same energy as suggesting to speedrun the Staten Island Railway, speaking in an exaggerated New York Italian accent, and doing a bunch of references to Impractical Jokers...
I was giggling to hard watching all 4 videos, great job
Love the wig, looking good!
Seems like a pothole problem not a spin problem
as a pittsburgher i never used spin but there were many parked in my neighborhood and i never saw a problem i guess i didnt consider this
Why kill this in its cradle? Yeah there’s problems with people leaving these in the way of accessibility spaces, and we absolutely need to make accommodations for those with disabilities, but why try to get rid of these entirely? We should add additional accessible transit options for those with disabilities not remove these just because not everyone can use them. Those are incredible ridership numbers as well
🤦🏿♂️ Now all the videos make sense.😂 ✌🏾
Please consider doing a video on radburn New Jersey
Classy🐳 😃
Everything about the pilot program was a disaster, half of which was because the city just sucks for this kind of transit. Many of the roads are in abysmal condition and the sidewalks, though specifically excluded under the terms of the app, aren't much better (when they even exist at all... in a CITY). That's all before you get to how the users abused the hell out of those scooters: jumping in and out of traffic, on and off sidewalks, going the wrong way on roads, leaving the scooters just any old place (particularly in bike lanes and blocking sidewalks)... I don't think I ever saw a single rider wearing a helmet.
The _only_ thing this program had going for it was the usage numbers. Neither the city nor the customers were ready to handle the scooters responsibly. Which is a shame! I was _all for it_ when it first started. After two years of putting up with the irresponsible riders and the constant mess they caused, I didn't even miss them when they went away. They just aren't the solution Pittsburgh needs.
omg the wig i am ********* dying
(...wait, I can swear here right, since this isn't Classy Whale?)
I’m confused. Most cities have bikes, not scooters. Bikes are much easier and safer to use. Why purchase scooters? Is it because they’re cheaper and smaller than bikes? Amsterdam has a network of bike lanes and bike parking at train stations.
Great job on thiis video it was very thorough and educational . You did a great job touching on the accesiblity and equity issue such a program presents. I guess Pittsburgh's experience is a cautionary tale about leaning too heavily on tech industry offerings for long-standing problems and doing the homework with inclusive community engagement.
That wig was not expected.
I've seen e-scooters and dockless bike share used extensively in Australian cities (Brisbane has tons of e-scooters from Lime and Bird while Sydney has lots of Lime e-bikes). I'm curious why this seems to be less of a problem down-under while North America is just unable to make it work. Are Americans (and to a lesser extent Canadians) unable to behave themselves as well as Aussies? Is the infrastructure better (doesn't seem like it, I think Toronto has more bike lanes)? A big difference I notice is that Aussie infrastructure seems to be generally in better condition (fewer potholes) and that road traffic enforcement is hard core and strict, so makes car drivers more careful (borderline scared). Example: there are red light and/or speed cameras every few km or blocks on city streets and motorways, there are also bus lane, seatbelt, and mobile phone detection cameras in the state. On holidays they have double demerits. My parents and I were driving home from a beach out of town yesterday (Easter Monday) and in our urban neighbourhood adjacent to Sydney's CBD, police were directing cars to pull over for random breath testing.
I just got around to watching you four's April Fool's vids and I love the gimmick of parodying each other! Though, I do have to say the blonde wig is a bit on the nose lol
A for effort either way!
The purpose of transit advocacy should be to create as many riders as possible, and I really don't think PPT is up to that idea. The disability issues with Spin are bad and should be fixed with docking stations. But to cheer the end of a program that served literally half the city's population makes me question whether they see themselves as transit advocates or as a general purpose disability/social justice/lefty kind of org.
Extra 0 for 700,000?
Complex problem. I think fixing this would require a lot of different teams of people with different areas of expertise, as Caleb pointed out many issues. How good is Pittsburgh at doing that?
I think you put an extra 0 in that $700,000 graphic. Or you meant to say 7 million. I can't swear which one it is, but I think the first option makes more sense. I highly doubt anyone gave Pittsburgh 7 million dollars for a few E scooters. That would be ridiculous. Of course, I wouldn't rule it out entirely. Ridiculous things do happen in transit funding surprisingly frequently.
Oops, yeah I added an extra 0
@@ClassyWhale well someone picked a bouquet of oopsy daisies this April fools. 🤣
I hate those scooters. I'm a blind person. And let me tell you I walked down plenty of streets in Chicago and I found those things at street corners. Blocking the sidewalk number of times. And yes there were a couple of times that I wanted to pick one of those things up and throw it into the Chicago river.
Too bad
Sorry but last mile isn't really a problem. You just need to have a society that isn't so adverse to walking.
E-scooters and bike share are useful to fill transit gaps and can form a valuable part of mobility.
But the true last (half) mile isn't really a problem
The advocacy group seems to be making the perfect the enemy of the good here. And it really does annoy me sometimes groups like this seem to have this "if we can't use it, then nobody can use it!" attitude. No, public e-scooters are not going to work for everyone, especially those with disabilities. Neither do public bicycles, they just have a better image. It's clear e-scooters are very popular, plus they take up less street space than a bicycle and are lighter and cheaper than an equivalent e-bike. If they get more cars off the road, then that will benefit disabled people who will be able to have faster trips on paratransit.
I get the bad parking causing problems, but this isn't something that's unique to scooters, in my city you see public bicycles blocking the pavement too. It's 100% a human behaviour problem, and getting rid of programs like that entirely is punishing all users for bad actors. And there are certainly ways that would go a long way to fixing that, like fines and bans for improper parking or even rewards for returning scooters to the dock.
Thing is: There are FAR more people, who can't drive a car for medical reasons than there are people, who can't ride a bicycle. Yet these groups are usually pure car advocates.
Wtf is your hair
On time and under budget
YOU CANT SWEAR ITS CLASSY WHALE
i hear PRT light rail is getting renovated
please caleb i need advice for going on the Pittsburgh port authority (PRT)
Ride the East Busway
ok