By Aj Picard — founder & self-taught designer

If you’re currently living in the suburbs you’re probably not aware of this electric scooter phenomenon that is going on. Depending on which city you’re living in you to might not know what the heck I’m talking about either.

There are multiple electric scooter brands popping up in cities all over the United States. I’m living in Baltimore, MD and we currently have 4 different brands.

How it works

Download one of the brand's app that I listed above.

Set up an account

Add payment

Find a scooter on the map inside of the app

Walk to that scooter

Click the “Ride” button at the bottom of the screen

Scan the QR code on the scooter

Wait for the scooter to unlock

GET ON AND RIDE!

I think this is the best invention since the mobile phone, I can literally travel from one end of the city to another in minutes.

Benefits:

Save money on Gas

Save mileage on your car

Dodge traffic

A lot more fun to ride

Better city views

It’s cheap

These scooters are so addicting to ride, my girlfriend and I are constantly riding them throughout the city instead of driving her car places. The downfall about these scooters is that there so fun you get addicted to them.

Instead of walking down the street to the market you want to start scootering there.

Instead of walking to the gym you want to scooter.

These scooters can get up to 20 mph, who doesn’t want to ride one all the time?

All of the brands are cheap to ride but if you’re using them multiple times throughout the day the price can add up and before you know it you’re spending $5+ a day on scooters… especially on weekends.

Pricing

Lime, Spin, Bird charge you $1 to start the scooter and then I believe 15 cents a minute after that.

Jump doesn’t charge you a $1 to start the scooter but instead charges you 15 cents a minute.

Keep in mind these prices are constantly changing and varying depending on where you’re located.

Best Brand?

These rankings I’m sure will vary depending on where you’re located, in Baltimore here’s my ranking and why.

Spin —Price: $1 to start 15 cents a minute — just rolled out this new scooter that has bigger wheels which increases the smoothness of the ride. I also found that’s Spins scooters seem to go the fastest and work the best. Bird — Price: $1 to start 15 cents a minute — recently move up to two over the past two weeks. They released a new scooter in Baltimore just like Spin. It doesn’t have the shocks/wheels Spin has to offer but they seem more durable than the two models listed below. Jump— Free to start 15 cents a minute — owned by Uber and was my favorite scooter at one point. It was the cheapest, went the fastest and looked the coolest. It has different color LED lights below the scooter which I think adds a nice flair to it. The only issue is Uber hasn’t updated their scooter and in Baltimore every time I go to unlock a Jump it either doesn’t work or goes 5 mph. Lime — $1 to start 15 cents a minute — these were one of the first scooters along with bird to hit the market. To me, Bird is heading in the right direction where Lime isn’t. The handlebars, in my opinion, are way too high, there isn’t any shock resistance which means you feel everything. Since they don’t have any shocks, I’ve seen a lot of people fall off of these scooters and really injure themselves.

One thing I forgot to mention is if you are scooter every day to and back from work I highly suggest buying your own scooter. Bird offers an option to buy your own scooter for $1,200 or you can reserve their Bike they’re releasing as well.

If you think about it buying your own Bird scooter for that price is very reasonable and here’s why.

Say you’re going to work Monday-Friday and it takes you 10 minutes to get there. That means you’re probably being charged at least $5 for a round trip. Times that by 5 and you’re $25 a week. Times that by 4 and you’re at $100 per month. Now times that by 12 and you’re sitting at $1,200 a year on scooter costs.

Now that’s the best-case scenario I’m sure it costs more than $5 to get to and from work each day. The point I’m trying to make is if you want to sell your car in the city of Baltimore and travel by scooter to save cash, I’d purchase your own Bird scooter.

Bird is the only scooter company right now offering this option which is why in the end I think they will be the best.

Final thoughts

I can’t wait until these scooters continue to adapt and get better. Unfortunately, these companies have to continue to adapt since people are constantly destroying these scooters. I know these things are pretty much banned from NYC, but I’ve heard rumors of these scooters coming to Philadelphia soon.

If you’re visiting DC or Baltimore, try them out for yourself.