Galveston has done what no other Texas cities have been able to do—have a successful scooter business model.
Some ride sharing companies have recently come up with a new mode of transportation that isn't working well in many places.
Crab Scooters owner Ryan O'Neal saw there was a demand, but quickly realized the dock-free business model was all wrong and says the city of Galveston worked with him on problems.
"We really agreed about the negative impacts of dockless and I showed them our solutions for it and how we can integrate these things into this market, into this city, provide this convenience," said O'Neal.
He said the business model was unsustainable with multiple flaws. For example, in Denver there was never enough for his whole group to ride together--could only find a few scooters at a time in any given one location.
Flaws in other locations in Texas include a lack of safely integrating with cities (using infrastructure and getting sued by ADA), profitability (after 90 days, but scooters missing after 25 days and no one reporting them missing), no accountability, mass convenience fallacy, no one uses safety equipment, new transportation device with no etiquette or how-to/industry standard and people who are against them and have been destroying them.
O’Neal said he and the city of Galveston have been working to create a standard of behavior, riding etiquette, as well as provide and use safety equipment.
He said they reached half of their yearly projections within the first 30 days of business.
"But just provide an all-around responsible model to integrate these great devices into society, because they truly are great," said O'Neal.
He said they have a wide range of demographics from teens to Baby Boomers.
He added the scooters work as a second vehicle for some families, a primary mode of transportation for lower income families, leisure, as well as a must for the tourist.