Now that Atlanta's becoming a hub for dockless e-scooters, I thought, what better way to cover the trend than to ride as many scooters as I could get my hands on and compare them?
I've been writing about e-scooters since Bird launched in Atlanta last July. I was even the first reporter in Atlanta to ride a JUMP pedal-assist bike (outside of the local Uber staff). But believe it or not, I'd yet to be on a dockless scooter.
Every time I tried to ride one of these babies, the battery was too low or the scooter was damaged.
So when my friends suggested I join them for a scooter ride through Piedmont Park, down the BeltLine for a quick lunch at Ponce City Market, of course, I had to go (for fun and research).
We decided we would pick different brands of scooters and swap to see how they felt to ride and find out which companies had the best pricing.
The first scooter I hopped on was a Lime-S, which was the only scooter app I already had downloaded on my phone. I rode my scooter from Piedmont Park, starting near the Botanical Gardens, all the way to Ponce City Market, parking it right along the BeltLine.
According to the app, I traveled 1.5 miles for 24 minutes, costing me just $4.60 ($1 of which was to start the scooter). The speed and acceleration were great, but for my first scooter ride, it was definitely something I had to get used to. At the end of the day, my friends teased that I started out as the slowest rider but ended up driving the fastest, usually at maximum speed.
During our trip from Piedmont to Ponce, one of my friends, Madi Taylor, who was riding a Bird, had to switch scooters midway. The first scooter she hopped on died mid-ride, even though its monitor said the battery was at full charge.
After lunch, we wanted to continue our experiment, so I took the opportunity to bolt to one of the new Bolt scooters that just launched in town. On my way to Ponce, I noticed my right leg got a little tired holding all of my balance and I'm not nimble enough to try driving an e-scooter on my left leg.
The Bolt is different from all other scooters currently offered in Atlanta; the scooter is equipped with parallel foot pads that allow riders to ride with their feet placed on each side of the scooter. This design, the company states, creates a “lower center of gravity for safer, more comfortable rides.”
Riding the Bolt, I definitely felt more comfortable on my feet. However, I noticed a lot of the features mentioned in the press release when Bolt was launched in the city weren't on my scooter. I didn't know what "space for shopping bags, purses and backpacks" meant. I still had to carry my purse on my shoulder like every other scooter. Phone charges and cup holders? None that I could see.
I drove my Bolt all the way from Ponce to Inman Park and swapped it for a JUMP scooter with my friend, Anna Renshaw. The JUMP scooter certainly had the quickest acceleration I felt all day. I was shocked to learn how much kick it had. I liked how it had an easy to read speedometer like the Lime scooter. We swapped scooters again, and I ended my ride on the Bolt on our way back to Ponce at Krog Street Market. The total ride was 3.05 miles that took 42 minutes. I would have been charged $7.30, but with a first ride discount, it only cost $2.30.
For our final ride back to Piedmont, we all decided to ride the same scooter, Lyft, which we all agreed, was a total mistake. Not that the scooter was a terrible ride, but unbeknownst to us, you can't park Lyft scooters in Piedmont Park! Every time you park an e-scooter, the apps prompts you to take a picture of where you parked it in order to lock it and end your ride. Up until this point, we didn't have any issues.
But when we all tried to park our scooters near the parking garage in Piedmont where we began our journey, a message popped up on our screens, telling us we couldn't park anywhere within the park limits. We had to drive outside of the park, leave the scooters and walk back to the car. Let me tell you, Fila lifestyle sneakers are not the proper footwear to walk on a gravel trail.
In addition to the parking frustration, the first Lyft I tried to ride had no acceleration. The scooter was damaged and I had to end the ride, get charged a dollar and start another one.
So what's the final verdict?
"Bird was definitely my least favorite because of the price difference," Renshaw said.
My same ride from Piedmont Park to Ponce City Market on a Lime scooter cost $4.60, whereas the same ride on a Bird cost nearly $9. Bird was by far the most expensive scooter we rode.
"My favorite was the JUMP because it accelerated faster," Taylor said. " I didn't like the Bird because it was almost twice as expensive as the others. Lyft was my second to least favorite because of the restrictions for parking the scooter."
"JUMP was probably my favorite, too. I liked all the ones that said how fast you were going," Renshaw said. "And Lyft's parking situation sucked but the one thing I like was how it showed the battery life on the scooter."
My least favorite ride was the Lyft, because of the restrictions I faced when trying to park in a popular spot in the city. Bolt stole the show for me and was my favorite ride, with a balanced ride and competitive price.
