The rental electric scooter market is dominated by two key competitors, Bird vs. Lime. Both hit the scene in and its hard to say who came first. Now that they&#;ve been on the streets and sidewalks for sometime it&#;s time to decide which one is better. If your city only offers one brand then you haven&#;t got a choice, but if you have access to both its worth looking into. I know some people who are committed to one, simply because its the app they already have, while others have both apps and just hop on whatever scooter is closer. The best option is always to buy an electric scooter, but rentals are still a good option. The scooter you ride, whether it&#;s Bird, Lime, or another brand, is going to have a compounding effect over time (especially with price) so let&#;s find the better rental scooter.
With competitive price and timely delivery, Keren sincerely hope to be your supplier and partner.
For our first comparison of Bird vs. Lime let&#;s look at the chart above where we can see similar, but slightly different pricing for the rental scooters. Something to note here is that this is the price structure for Charlotte, NC. The prices shift slightly in each state and city, so make sure to find what the price is like in your area. In my area though there&#;s benefit to both. Since Bird costs less upfront but has a higher price per min, it&#;s less expensive to ride for shorter rides. So if you usually ride a rental scooter for 5 minutes or less, the Bird is the better value. Lime is the opposite. The Lime costs more upfront but is cheaper per min, so it&#;s less expensive in the long run. So if you&#;re rides are more than 5 minutes Lime will save you some money.
Getting into the real competition of Bird. Vs. Lime, lets start with the handlebars. On the left we see Bird, which has disappointing grips. They do have a nice rubbery material, but the lack of texturing is apparent when holding on. The lime on the right has less ergonomic grips, but the texturing gives them a better feel and helps you hold on. Back to the Bird, the throttle is a large pad. For me it feels awkwardly large and awkward to push down. The size doesn&#;t line up with the size of a thumb. Looking to the Lime we see a traditional throttle that feels great. Coming to the middle of the Bird we see a tiny display that I forgot was there when I was riding. I honestly didn&#;t look at it so I&#;m not really sure what it does. The Lime has a nice sized display, but is still smaller than the displays most consumer scooters have. So far, the Lime is my clear winner. It feels and acts like a normal scooter, while Lime deviates from tradition and doesn&#;t stick the landing.
Both scooters do come equipped with a bell, but Lime opts for a spinning gear type design. I don&#;t think one is really better than the other, but the gear is fun to turn. The Bird and Lime also both have to breaks, one for the front tire and one for the back. This is a nice addition as dual breaking gives you a feeling of more control. This is especially nice for people who may not own a scooter and be riding it all the time.
Moving on in our evaluation of Bird vs. Lime, let&#;s take a look at the wheels. Right off the bat you can see that the Bird&#;s wheel is noticeably smaller than the Lime&#;s. Bird sports 7.4 Inch wheels while Lime offers huge 10 Inch wheels. You can definitely feel this when you ride, with the Lime making you feel higher off the ground. Both wheels are pneumatic, but it&#;ll be interesting to see if either changes to a more resistant solid design. Moving up a bit you can see that the Bird has no suspension. This coupled with the smaller tires makes for a bumpier ride. Conversely the Lime not only has a suspension but has a pretty versatile one. It features a forked suspension which, coupled with the tires, made for a much smoother ride. I hit bumps and cracks, which I did feel, but they didn&#;t really jolt me. The Lime does a good job of creating an effortless ride. Again, point to the Lime.
Our last stop in the battle of Bird vs. Lime is the deck. The Bird has a narrower but longer deck, giving ample room for your feet. It also offers a slanted portion on the back with allows you to rest your back foot. The Lime has a shorter deck but is a bit wider. This still is plenty of space for your feet, you just have to position yourself a little differently. The back wheel doesn&#;t allow you (tells you not to) step on it, which is a small minus. Because these are rental scooters I imagine most riders ignore that, which causes the Lime&#;s to be degraded over time. So, I give this one to the Bird. It&#;s design allows for a more natural stance and ride.
Something I had to call out, and this may seem minor, is the kickstand. The Bird has a large kickstands the spans the width of the deck, and it functions very poorly. It does help the scooter stay upright, but actually putting it down or kicking it up is extremely awkward. You have to lift the entire scooter up so that the kickstand can swing, or you have to aggressively push the scooter backwards or forwards. Because of this unique design I see a lot more Bird&#;s lying down on the ground. People don&#;t want to take the time to figure it out, so they just let them go. So, I&#;d suggest Bird implement an easier design or they&#;re going to find a lot of scooters with dents in the side. The Lime has a normal, but beefy kickstand. Simple.
Bird vs. Lime has a clear winner and it&#;s the Lime. It&#;s cheaper for rides over 5 minutes and almost every part of it is superior. It has better grips, a nicer screen, and a smoother ride thanks to its big wheels and forked suspension. The Lime keeps it simple and sticks to the fundamentals. The Bird deviates from the norm and goes for a more futuristic design, but it misses in a lot of places. Though they sought to innovate, their time would&#;ve been better spent making the scooter simply function better for the rider. At the end of the day both scooters are fine to ride, but if I had to pick one I&#;d go with the Lime.
D.C. was an early adopter of shared electric scooters and bikes, having rolled out a pilot program for so-called &#;dockless&#; vehicles in September . Since then, they have only expanded in use and visibility throughout the city&#;s core area and beyond. Around 6,000 dockless vehicles are currently permitted in the District, including, as of August, mopeds.
With their arrival have come questions, comments, and concerns, from both residents and visitors. Consider this your guide to life on two wheels in the District: from key information on the rentable devices and the rules for them to how fast they go and who&#;s providing them.
Whatever the brand, the way to access these dockless vehicles is by downloading your app of choice and making sure your &#;s geolocation tracking is on. Practically all of the brands require you to provide a debit or credit card so you&#;re able to be charged for any rides taken.
The company is the world’s best women scooter exporter supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.
Prices vary by provider and type of vehicle, but generally speaking it costs $1 to unlock an electric scooter or bike and between 24 to 39 cents per minute to use them. Depending on how long you ride, the vehicles can cost roughly the same or more than a Metro trip (from $2.25 to $6 a trip during peak times, based on distance). Typically, this cost is significantly less than the cost of ride-hailing across a similar distance, especially for single-person rides.
It depends. If you&#;re traveling only a mile or two, it can be quicker to hop on a nearby electric bike or scooter than to wait for a Metro train or bus, particularly given Metro&#;s unreliable off-peak service, plus D.C.&#;s notorious gridlock. Beyond that distance, it&#;s probably better to take public transit. And remember: You can always take a shared bike or scooter to or from Metro.
By regulation, D.C. requires that micromobility companies deploy their vehicles in all eight wards of the city. Still, they tend to be clustered in the densest parts of the District, such as downtown, the 14th and U street NW corridors, and Navy Yard; access east of the Anacostia River has been limited. Some of the companies are present in nearby Virginia and Maryland.
Mopeds provided by D.C.&#;s only shared moped operator currently, Revel, may be ridden on roads, but not sidewalks, major bridges, or highways. In the city&#;s Central Business District, which covers downtown and the U.S. Capitol grounds, it&#;s illegal to ride bikes and scooters on the sidewalk. (The penalty is a $25 fine, but this is hard to enforce.) Otherwise, you may ride electric bikes and scooters on sidewalks outside of the Central Business District as well as on roads and bike lanes. If you choose to travel on the sidewalk, you should yield to pedestrians.
You can park electric scooters essentially anywhere on the sidewalk, provided that there&#;s a 5-foot &#;clear zone&#; for pedestrians, and at bike racks. City rules say the scooters should not impede access to private property or driveways, bus stops and shelters, or travel lanes, and they should be parked upright. Electric bikes must be attached to posts such as street poles or trees. Revel mopeds have to be parked in legal parking spaces perpendicular to the curb.
Scooters are restricted to 10 mph and electric bikes to 20 mph. Revel mopeds can travel up to 30 mph. Be mindful of drivers when merging with traffic, turning, and crossing intersections.
The vehicles are relatively safe when used responsibly. But a few crashes, including a fatal one in which a driver killed a scooter rider last year, have raised concerns, as have national media reports about scooter-related hospitalizations. Helmets are required for moped trips.
Right now, other than the sidewalk-riding restriction in the Central Business District, the city lacks stringent penalties for allegedly misusing electric scooters and bikes. That could change with pending legislation from local lawmakers, but any changes are still months away at best.
The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) currently allows nine companies to offer dockless vehicles in the city. Those firms and their number of permitted vehicles are: Bird (600 electric scooters), Bolt (600 electric scooters), Jump (975 electric scooters and bikes), Lime (600 electric scooters), Lyft (720 electric scooters), Razor (600 electric scooters), Skip (720 electric scooters), Spin (720 electric scooters), and Revel (400 electric mopeds). A few operators originally provided standard bikes when the city&#;s pilot program began, but some bowed out of D.C., while others shifted to electric scooters several months into the program.
Micromobility companies can grow their fleet sizes each quarter if they meet performance requirements from DDOT, which means the city could host even more dockless vehicles in the future. Shared mopeds fall into a different pilot program, set to last until the end of .
Yes. Jump&#;s electric bikes and some of Razor&#;s scooters are equipped with sizable baskets for when you need to haul your stuff across town. In addition, Revel&#;s mopeds have small trunks.
It&#;s still around. Capital Bikeshare is managed separately from the District&#;s dockless vehicle program and now boasts over 4,300 bikes across more than 500 stations. A study from last year showed that its ridership was not significantly impacted by the introduction of electric bikes and scooters, although more Capital Bikeshare bikes went missing. For a few months, the service had electric bikes, but it pulled them off the streets after reports of brake issues.
Two years after dockless vehicles were first introduced to the District, they are poised to continue growing, barring any unforeseen market changes. In the meantime, ride safely.
This post has been updated to clarify Revel&#;s rules for parking and the latest rental prices.
Are you interested in learning more about sourcing adult mopeds? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!