[RSimonS]

People misuse these kind of services, Indians do not know how to take care of others things. I have found Bounce scooters parked on flyovers and at random places, many a times not even properly parked. No wonder that there is mention on overall maintenance of these two wheelers. Indians, including me, do not deserve services like these

[PrideRed]

I don't understand what has this got to do with Indian's or India. First of all we don't have this kind of service available anywhere else(atleast not that I am aware of), so comparison is out of question. Secondly no two countries work the same and have their own positives and negatives. So please stop blaming country.

Coming to the service, are there problems? Yes there are a plenty. But that's how a service or products evolve. I found this model truly revolutionary and hope it evolves. Let me look at alternatives-

OLA/Uber- Unruly drives, average cabs, unavailable during peak hours, bigger menace on road.
Public transport- Less said about the maintenance, the better. For me these buses cause bigger problem o road than the scooters. Should we ban them?
Auto- In past one year, haven't come across a single auto who used meter. Drivers aren't sages either.

[shamanth]

I have taken bounce ride few times, its kind of hit and miss.

Good
1. Able to go to banks or get other works done around office, when we go to office with non-personal transport.
2. Much cheaper than other transport, even cheaper than Yullu Cycles.

Bad
1. Helmet are missing, i guess they are looking into some technology, where ride wont end unless helmet is kept in a slot. Guess people are stealing helmets.
2. Bounce is relaying on customers to fill the petrol, instead of keeping couple of guys in an area who take care of refilling, punture repair and vehicle maintenance. India has cheap labour, better to invest on it, rather than leaving on the mercy of customers. its not easy to refill the petrol, especially when you want to go to a point in 10 mins, and it might take take 30 mins to fill petrol in places like ORR in Bangalore.

[ValarMorghulis]

Originally Posted by PrideRed

I don't understand what has this got to do with Indian's or India. First of all we don't have this kind of service available anywhere else(atleast not that I am aware of), so comparison is out of question. Secondly no two countries work the same and have their own positives and negatives. So please stop blaming country....

While I take pride in my country, traffic sense is not something I think I can claim to be great here. Lack of sensible driving, flouting traffic rules en masse, rash driving and I can go on and on and on.
We have similar services in other countries and the vehicles are maintained really well, work wonderfully and somehow people seem to follow all the rules, despite there being not one individual to check the vehicle condition at the end of your trip. I have used a free bicycle service in Zurich and even those cycles were properly maintained and never once I saw them being left helter-skelter.
Lack of concern and apathy to everything not owned by oneself seems strangely more prevalent in India. I don't know whether it is poverty, high population density or what, but chaos is definitely more here.

[ts1506]

While the concept of picking it up and leaving it anywhere is convenient, its a huge nuisance in reality.

I’ve seen atleast 20 occasions of bounce scooters parked near the median on right lane of Electronic City flyover.

On one occasion, I have seen a scooter parked bang in middle of the lane as well. Imagine the stupidity.

Might be very convenient for bounce users, it is honestly a headache for other road goers.

[PrideRed]

Originally Posted by ValarMorghulis

While I take pride in my country, traffic sense is not something I think I can claim to be great here. Lack of sensible driving, flouting traffic rules en masse, rash driving and I can go on and on and on.
We have similar services in other countries and the vehicles are maintained really well, work wonderfully and somehow people seem to follow all the rules, despite there being not one individual to check the vehicle condition at the end of your trip. I have used a free bicycle service in Zurich and even those cycles were properly maintained and never once I saw them being left helter-skelter.
Lack of concern and apathy to everything not owned by oneself seems strangely more prevalent in India. I don't know whether it is poverty, high population density or what, but chaos is definitely more here.

Can you please let me know of bike/scooter service in Zurich? I am planning to visit next week and this might come handy. Bicycle is different ball game, most of the Yulu bikes I see are in good condition as well.

Flouting traffic rules, rash driving prevails everywhere else, but the population in other countries are significantly lesser hence lesser violations. In the US I have seen enough of road rage, traffic violations etc. Just check any densely populated city abroad and situation isn't great there as well.

The rental cars however I found to be in better shape abroad, For one they are costlier and secondly car prices are cheaper.

[ValarMorghulis]

Originally Posted by PrideRed

Can you please let me know of bike/scooter service in Zurich? I am planning to visit next week and this might come handy. Bicycle is different ball game, most of the Yulu bikes I see are in good condition as well.

Flouting traffic rules, rash driving prevails everywhere else, but the population in other countries are significantly lesser hence lesser violations. In the US I have seen enough of road rage, traffic violations etc. Just check any densely populated city abroad and situation isn't great there as well.

The rental cars however I found to be in better shape abroad, For one they are costlier and secondly car prices are cheaper.

1. https://www.rentalmotorbike.com
2. http://www.yellow-point.ch/de/index.html
3. https://www.motorradhandel.ch/haendl...che.cfm?type=1


I had the population reasoning in my mind as well, but then I saw the Zurich Burger Festival and despite an overwhelming crowd, there wasn't litter parading everywhere. I seriously have no clue how they do it, but both the traffic and the crowd is less chaotic.

[Malyaj]

Thanks for the post. I was always curious about how the thing works but was too lazy (or indifferent) to google it. If they can figure out some way to gauge the petrol level to a decent level of accuracy, the issue of bikes with empty tanks may be arrested. A customer can be given credit for the difference in amount of fuel between start and end of trip and this can go into his/her e-wallet.

Of course there could be cases where the fuel at the end of the trip is less than at the beginning, for which a certain deposit can be held at the time of signing up and used towards adjusting the deficit.

[abhi7013]

Originally Posted by Funny

I agree with Thilak29 and OrangeCar. This Bounce has become more of a nuisance for others who don't actually use them. The other day I saw BTP towing away few Bounce scooters mostly for wrong parking. I don't know who is liable for that, the user or the company, most probably its the latter since the user has already paid and left whereas the scooter which is the company's property will have to be released by paying fine to BTP. How long can this sustain? As said above, till the investor money runs out. So guys, enjoy the service as much as you can, since it will eventually die out unless they can come up with ways to tackle the wrong parking issues. I see them parked almost everywhere like side/middle of ORR, on pavements, on flyovers etc

The towing is done by bounce with the help of the BTP. No fines are levied as of now which is why the nuisance of haphazard parking is growing day by day. They quickly need to find a way out. Possibly by contacting the customer who last parked it in a dangerous place?

[albertprince]

Mobility solution is a very intresting topic. Especially for someone who lives in the chaos of an Indian city. On my last visit to Bangalore, I was welcomed by the 'responsible citizen' themed advertisement of Bounce. In one way the idea of bike sharing makes people responsible. It gives an option for someone to reduce his traffic footprint to just 2 puny wheels, but we do have a greater responsibility to use and park rather than to use and throw them .

Bounce and any such startup has great potential in Indian market. While the price hike in our uber, ola platforms make us frown, these innovative start-ups restores our smile. Any of the 2 wheeler sharing services has its merits but has proven to be controversial in many cases around the globe.

Bicycles were sought to bring down pollution and make mobility easier in China, but with the funds raised high and the eaze of pumping in bicycles to the market, many cities has turned out as bicycle dumping yards. Here the main cause that killed the idea was overcapacity. More bicycles were fed to the system than the required numbers. Results were horrifying . Let the pictures talk.




The overestimation killed many players in the business and this may settle down to useful service gradually in the future.

Dockless scooter sharing companies like bird, lime, skip etc brought series of issues along with the last mile connectivity promised by them. The lack of proper parking spaces and non existence of strict traffic rules for these bikes made chaos in cities. Globally, many cities are forming rules and the parent companies are working out to optimise the usage and bring maximum benefits.


Bounce and competitors will make our lives easy as they advance. These simple mobility solutions and a great public transport system will bring peace and save time in our cities.

This is the picture of an abandoned bounce scooter discussed in social media.

The words of Bounce CEO in the social media discussion seems to assuring

"Everybody were skeptical that unsupervised assets dont work in India. We always believed that majority of Indians value things what serves them daily. As you all know Mobility is seriously broken in India and only 18% have access to personal mobility. With Bounce we want to solve and provide mobility for all.
I agree few of them leave the bikes in the main roads, dont return the helmets, college kids absuse it. But this will eventually fall in place. We have driving license details of all these users. We have started rating users based on next user's response. Also we have accelerometer and gyroscope so any wheelies or bad driving gets flagged. We have started warning and banning users.
We have started community reporting in the app, also tied up with security guards, kirana store owners etc., to ensure unsupervised assets have more eyes on it."

Pearls of Wisdom from my side to whomsoever concerned.

-- Rather than expecting us to be responsible, these providers can hold their stick and teach us obedience. This will at least solve the parking issues and stolen helmets. They can't still exist people to be kind hearted to the bikes. ( All humans are not BHPians).
-- Bringing in user privileges and rewarding good users can bring make our behaviours better.
-- As the vehicle sharing becomes a common thing we can expect support from government. This can act very effectively as feeder services. ( Win win situation )

Hopefully Mobility solutions will definitely become a big part of our city lives. I believe that, if at all a group of people can make our city lives better that elegant group is our startup masterminds. Let us all work together for peaceful, beautiful and clean Indian cities.

[naveenroy]

Originally Posted by RSimonS

People misuse these kind of services, Indians do not know how to take care of others things. I have found Bounce scooters parked on flyovers and at random places, many a times not even properly parked. No wonder that there is mention on overall maintenance of these two wheelers. Indians, including me, do not deserve services like these

Haha don't be so hard on us people. It is the same all over the world. You should see the electric scooters here - the exact same problem. Parked all over the place, dropped off everywhere, people taking them on public transport and using them in areas that aren't covered. Heck, so many riding on the footpaths and knocking people over. So bad that they have had to bring ordinances in place.

Americans do not deserve services like these

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by albertprince

They can't still exist people to be kind hearted to the bikes. ( All humans are not BHPians).

Actually, very few people are like BHPians. Just look around you, how many of your friends or colleagues wear seatbelts, follow traffic rules or even get their vehicles serviced on time? People don't treat their own vehicles proplerly and we expect them to treat someone elses' property well? I hope they burn through the investor money quickly and disappear from our roads before turning into another nuisance.

[jithin23]

I use Bounce scooters whenever I get an opportunity to commute for short disstances. Pricing is reasonable at Rs 5/km. It is ideal to use with 4-5kms radius for instance from home to metro station. Sometimes locating the scooters becomes a task. Very convenient if you need to get to a destination fast. Hope they maintain the same quality service and better brakes on their scooters. Bounce was formerly known as metrobikes.

[mazda4life]

Bounce bikes are an absolute nuisance for non users and the CEO is living in a fools paradise if he thinks that people will treat the assets judiciously while even a cursory search on net can give multiple examples on how people abuse the assets which are rented for a short duration. Authorities turn a blind eye due to vested interests and the suffering is for the average Joe like many of us. The same case with the cyclu rental bikes , where they are left at all possible places like pavements , blocking access to Zebra Cross. Without proper thought a half baked law is sure to assure some of these operators easy VC money.

[yogeshsom29]

Two things which are very clear is that firstly, it is an revolutionary business model & second, the misuse problem is not India specific.

My 2 cents (or more as it is slightly longer post) on it without intending to disrespect any views which are expressed by other BHPians.

The problem is, looks like it is rolled out in haste, may be under investor pressure or whatever but it is still half cooked. It is a solution of last mile connectivity yet not being stitched well enough to the last mile from execution perspective.

I also appreciate the CEO’s response, it atleast shows (on the face of it) that the belief is “ By virtue, all human beings are good” .It would’ve been very interesting if the CEO would have supported his message with datapoints like ratio of services misused vs used, traffic rules adherence vs violations, rider ratings stats, so on & so forth to build trust & positivity substantiating his views

Why don’t these start-ups crowdsource ideas to make the execution more tighter; reward people whose ideas are absorbed in the process.

Companies in this space also need to work with relevant government agencies to see how seamlessly this can be stitched with legal provisions as most of our laws (traffic or otherwise) are pretty archaic & are not future ready to accommodate this revolutionary ideas.

This should work, they’ll have to identify ways to get this worked & as someone pointed out – take a stick to build obedience – I agree to it. Build a nice reward program (like fairplay awards in IPL) & in parallel also an exhaustive list of unaccepted stuff with potential negative outcomes which can range from banning to fines or may be also invoking some relevant legal sections

- From the negativity perspective which is normally always blown out of proportion like breaking news - I suggest pls read the book “Factfulness” & see the pessimistic in us get a jolt as you read that most dreaded figures in our minds (& television) are actually improving year on year, decade on decade across the globe.

The world (& that includes India)is not as bad as it is made out to be on news channels & news papers - they portray it out of compulsions of surviving in the industry