Scoot Networks Launches Electric Scooter Rental Service in San Francisco

Cities are where almost all of our economic and cultural activity takes place today, and on an evermore crowded planet, inevitably, cities will continue to attract the majority of growth in human settlement and jobs. In turn, this will increasingly reveal a constrained urban resource - transportation - the ability of city streets to carry people around efficiently. Such is the state of the urban world, as explained to me earlier this week by Michael Keating, CEO of San Francisco based start-up, Scoot Networks; and it led to Scoot devising a business (launched in public beta in San Francisco last week) that provides an alternative way to get around congested city streets. Scoot will now rent you a zippy electric Scooter (by the hour) from one of four locations in the city's South of Market neighborhood, providing an urban mobility solution designed to be easy, cheap and fast as well as fun and sustainable. Here's how it works. After registering for the service on Scoot's website and going through an initial orientation process, from then on, the rental process is smartphone enabled at point of use. Riders go along to one of Scoot's staging locations, open the Scoot app on either their iPhone or Android device and will be able to see the scooters available for rent, and the state of charge for each one. After selecting a ride registered users simply dock their phone to the Scooter, which activates the vehicle; at which point their smartphone morphs into a vehicle dashboard. Each bike is equipped with a helmet in a secured box on the rear rack, so you don't have to lug around a lot of gear before you get to a bike. And for the meticulous, a sanitizing spray is provided on board each scooter, to ensure helmet hygiene. Helmet on, and smart phone docked - you're good to go. The scooters qualify as mopeds, so an advantage of the service is that you don't have to go out and get a motorcycle license to ride one. If you're at least 21, and have a regular drivers license, you can rent a bike. In California, the rental period for this type of vehicle is limited to under 48 hours at a time on a car drivers license, but that restriction is not really an issue for short hops around the city. The scooters have a range of up to 30 miles, can reach speeds of up to 30 mph, and are very reasonably priced. You can take a bike out for $5 per hour, or for a flat fee of $10, you can keep one all day (business hours that is). Furthermore, if you're heading home for the evening from downtown, you can keep the bike overnight for a flat $10 too. This should be an incentive for many to leave their car at home, and substitute a Scoot for their commute! Earlier this year, Scoot Networks went through the 12-week accelerator program at Greenstart to hone their business solution and get them ready to bring their service to market. Greenstart helps companies who operate at the intersection of cleantech and IT and as well as helping with funding, Scoot noted that Greenstart assisted particularly in developing effective branding. Subsequently, they have secured additional funding to the tune of $550,000. At the moment, Scoot operates 40 vehicles, and as well as their four current locations, may open a fifth as soon as this week. Because the vehicles recharge from a regular wall outlet, deploying new staging locations is relatively easy, and doesn't require the installation of sophisticated fast chargers. This will allow Scoot to open in new areas more easily as demand grows. Scoot is also eyeing other cities in which to open in the future as well. Perhaps sadly, the scooters themselves are sourced from China, but as Scoot's Michael Keating explained to me, there isn't, and never has been, a mass producer of electric scooters in the USA. Conversely, China produces literally millions of these vehicles each year - which in a way, is proof of their suitability in urban environments. China's densely populated and polluted cities have borne a clean, reliable and efficient means of transport - equally suited to our ever growing cities too.