Fast, slow, and expensive and slow.

A few weeks ago I foolishly wondered if we would have a car in Spain. Now I can see how much of a burden that would be. The streets a so tiny, one way, and filled with tourists. When you think you have an open road it ethier is half metro lines or the road ends soon. Some roads are ethier so small or look so much like a sidewalk that I can’t even tell that they are roads! And of course there are occasional motorists on a sidewalk which makes it even harder to tell.

Walking is certainly a great option as you don’t have to obey traffic laws but if you want to go fast it’s obviously not great.

As we were leaving the bull ring yesterday, I recommended to Don Quixote that we take a bike rental service only available in Sevilla, Servici, to our next destination. We ended up not taking it though as Servici is available only at stations like this:

A station was not closely available so we decided to take a scooter that required an app called Voy. Voy was bad from the beginning. The online rental process took way too long for a first timer and only allowed one rental per mobile device, meaning both me and Don Quixote had to get the app. Additionally, the fee was a quarter euro a minute. But I haven’t even mentioned the worst part: it was very very slow. It couldn’t keep up with any bikes and half the city is a slow zone, which on any reasonable option would be fine but slow for this scooter meant you couldn’t even stay upright, that’s right, you had to push a heavy, actively re-gen breaking scooter for €1 per 4 minutes.

It should come without me saying that we ditched that option at 15 minutes and €4 and tried Servici. On our first night in Sevilla I had seen a sign that said something like €2.59 for a day at the Servici station close to our apartment and I couldn’t believe it. I’m still trying to figure out the pricing but it has become apparent that if you ride for less than thirty minutes your ride is free! We got the app and tried it. You just swipe and it releases! I’ve only had one bad experience with Servici but it was my fault: I left my daypack in the basket! But Don Quixote quickly remembered and I sprinted back to get my pack. Anyways when you’re done you just put the bike back in at a station and it stops the timer and you walk to your destination!

I love the idea of a potentially free shared bicycle! I wish Texas had these!