I ran across a very curious thing near my place of employment in Oakland. Upright against the newly renovated concrete wall of the neighborhood bank was a line of 4 lime green scooters. I decided to investigate a little further and found out that anyone could start using them for a dollar. I didn't do that since I assumed that they were unmovable without some kind of authorization or code. Looking at them more closely, they were labeled as Lime-S scooters.
Then, I remembered something about an electric scooter startup elsewhere called Bird. The founder of that startup used to work at Uber and then he became the Chief Operating Officer of Lyft. Bird got into some trouble with the city of Santa Monica which it promptly settled with. This all stinks of the same way Uber operates: start something, don't ask for permission and then seek forgiveness later. This is classic alpha male behavior. The fruit hasn't fallen very far from the tree, so to speak.
Apparently, LimeBike is entering the market in the Bay Area. I wonder why the guy that started Bird didn't decide to do this in the Bay Area. It could be that he lives in Santa Monica. Or, it could be that he wanted to test this concept in a different market with a younger demographic. Either way, I expect that Bird will appear up here in the Bay Area soon enough. Alpha males that run companies always want to add to their fiefdom.
Around the corner from the scooters is a half block of bicycles locked into receptacles. They are Ford Go Bikes. These bikes are provided by the Ford Automotive company. They are trying out a large-scale bicycle sharing mode of transportation. I believe that they will soon be rolling out electric bicycles. When that happens, I will try it out. Why pedal when you can ride?
Since data is the real currency of technology, I suspect that anyone using these bicycles or scooters is unknowingly giving these companies information about commute patterns. Yes, you have to pay for the privilege of using the service, but they are getting something more valuable from you: data. It's a data-driven world, people.
The scooters and the bikes make me smile and are good for the environment, but they also reinforce my thinking about the direction that technology is luring us into. Mainly, it feels as if we are all moving towards a world where there is no concept of ownership. Owning something will soon be a novel idea. You might even be labeled a revolutionary someday!
How did we get here? It all starts with the price of housing.
Housing is extremely expensive in any areas with a high concentration of technology companies. For instance, in San Francisco, it takes an income of $300K to be able to afford a house. This is based on putting down 20% down on a 30-year fixed rate home loan with an interest rate of 4.17%. The median price of a home is now just over $1.5 million. Um, yeah, let's all gasp because the oxygen has left the room. It was only 3 years ago, that people needed just $200K to live in San Francisco. The cost of living has roared past all reason.
Since housing is expensive, people will double or triple up on whatever space they can get. This means that there is no room for any extra belongings. There goes the CD/album collection, the books, the clothes, the pots and pans, and the car since having a garage is a premium perk. If we extrapolate the consequences, it is easy to see that you slowly slip into a mode of not owning anything. There isn't even room for families.
If you don't have a car, you take Uber or Lyft. If you don't have music, you use a service like Pandora. If you don't have space for books, you can download a book onto your device of choice via the Kindle application. If you need clothes, you can use StitchFix. If you have to share a bathroom, you may need to get cosmetics from Birch Box. If you don't have what it takes to cook a meal, you get it from Blue Apron or Hello Fresh. Lastly, if you don't have a garage, you'll need to rent a bicycle, scooter or car.
It's a life of no ownership. Don't rent out what is left of the rest of your life.
They are cool and cute, but guess what? You don't own them!