Scooter squares
September 16, 2008
There’s a lot of buzz around town about a company created in July called the Square Patrol–a group of scooter nerds who will drive your drunk self’s car home, folding their scooter up in your trunk and then scootaddle on out. By buzz I mean my friend’s sister and an ad I saw today in official news source The Onion. Oh now you believe me.
[A picture from their web site. Ladies love a scooter man.]
But seriously, what the hell. I investigated this via the Internet, and have discovered that the organization is in pending 501 (c) (3), meaning they’re a non-profit and accept donations–they suggest $20. The great thing about this Internet is that you can find freaking awesome and helpful web sites such as this one to learn about the efficiency of running a scooter. (New motorscooter investment return calculator!) Twenty dollars is pretty high, especially due to the fact that A. students can ride the e-bus for free and B. a gas guzzling cab to my Riverside apartment runs me $20 round-trip. And you’re paying them in addition to already using gas to drive downtown and find a parking spot.
But this method will be significantly more entertaining when you’re drunk and you don’t have to pay them $20. Oh, and the phone number is 512-R-U-DRUNK. They say that the donation will help reduce the cost of this service, which is true, but in the first months of the business you’ll be paying their publicity bill.
My plan, which I hope Capital Metro will pay attention and pay money (to me) for is this. During the summer, the E-bus doesn’t run, you know when more students in Austin actually have time to go downtown. If Cap Metro ran the E-bus during the summer, charging 50 cents, they would take business which goes to cabs and students wouldn’t mind paying $1 compared to $20 or more. You’re welcome and I’ll be looking for my royalties check in the mail.

Not to mention the fact that I wouldn’t trust anyone who is trying to pass this off as a legit business.
oh Austin…
but considering they are a non-profit…
I’d just say
so…BEd time in the car you drove me innnnnnn
call me tomorrow @ 512-U-TRIPPN
Overlooked Value in delivered service:
The above blog post overlooked several factors in assessing the cost-benefit of using the Square Patrol service.
The missing factors in calculating the value delivered to the intoxicated car owner of transporting his/her car from the place they would have otherwise had to retrieve it are:
» Convenience-1: no logistics to handle
» Convenience-2: no one inconvenienced, no favors to ask, no embarrassment
» Additional time required to retrieve car
» Additional cost of gas used in getting to car
Neither a taxi or a bus will solve the car retrieval problem. The calculation in the above blog post did not factor the complete savings in time and money. Nor did the calculation include the added-value of convenience to customer of having their car transported to their residence.
[I have no affiliation with Square Patrol. Just learned about them on a recent news segment.]
-Neville