Scoobi & Me
Scooter-sharing app is put to the test
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
As I take my inaugural ride on a Scoobi scooter, I imagine I look as chic as a Roman businessman I saw once in the Eternal City. Built like a statue in a tailored suit and loafers that cost more than my weekly paycheck, he disembarked from a moped in a piazza to grab an espresso.
In reality I’m more like an amalgamation of Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne in the scooter scene in “Dumb and Dumber,” a 280-pound lummox in cargo shorts giggling as I finally get the vehicle unlocked and accelerate down Sidney Street on the South Side.
The deep blue electric Genze scooter I’m riding is one of 100 on-demand rental scooters belonging to Shadyside-based Scoobi. Founded by 29-year-old Fox Chapel native Mike Moran, the scooter-sharing app took off last month.
Since its July launch, 7,661 users have downloaded the app, and Mr. Moran expects that to spike once local college students return to classes.
“In a city of 300,000 people, that’s pretty good,” he mused.
The process is fairly straightforward. Download the Scoobi app and register, which includes entering a valid driver’s license number and a payment option. Users are required to watch a series of brief videos before their first ride, or they will not be able to unlock the vehicle. A Bluetooth connection on the vehicle connects with the user’s smartphone to unlock.
The app displays a map of Pittsburgh. Areas highlighted in blue — the Golden Triangle, Hill District, South Side Flats and several East End neighborhoods — are where the vehicles are parked. The app lists the closest vehicles and their battery life: A fully charged battery is good for up to 30 miles of travel.
Helmets are required. Riders can bring their own or use one that is in the vehicle’s cargo hold. Only one rider per vehicle.
Riders could ostensibly go anywhere provided they stay on roads that are 35 miles per hour and under; the scooters’ top speed is only 30 miles per hour. Rides cost $5 for the first 15 minutes and 25 cents for each additional minute. Riders can pause and park at a destination, although, like a taxi, the meter continues to run. At ride’s end the vehicle must be in a legally parked space in the blue area on the map.
Mr. Moran, who found similar scooter-sharing apps in San Francisco and Atlanta, said that his company pays a flat rate per vehicle per month to the city to be able to park in metered and residential permit parking spaces.
The bikes are a product of Indian company Mahindra, but these Genze scooters are made in Fremont, Calif., and Ann Arbor, Mich. They retail for $4,200, but Mr. Moran and his team of investors got a bulk rate discount.
“Scoobi adds another mobility choice to the city’s transportation ecosystem and supports our goals of increasing the number of ways people have to move around Pittsburgh while also reducing vehicle emissions,” Mayor Bill Peduto said.
There is a lengthy list of penalties for parking in the wrong spot or taking a Scoobi scooter onto a forbidden road, such as the Parkway East or West. Scoobi’s nine-person staff includes five people who drive around at night to swap out battery packs and vehicles that may need service.
Mr. Moran was adamant that his scooters were scrappy enough to do the hills and terrain of Pittsburgh, so like a meddling kid I put it to the test on the notoriously steep South Side Slopes. It mostly passed. Zigging and zagging around my neighborhood, wind in my face on a warm summer day, I had a ball.
Having zipped along East Carson Street from SouthSide Works to Station Square, I reversed course and hit the hills, first heading up a portion of South 18th Street to Pius Street, which it took with ease. Cutting over Pius, I took a left onto the markedly steeper grade of Brosville Street, and the scooter kept on chugging, although the speed had dropped to about 15 mph.