One of the speakers wanted to tune us in on the big picture. She showed us a map of the bay area two years ago, showing almost nothing in the bike sharing available to the public. Then she showed us the current picture.

Yup. A lot more of that kind of thing now. Like most of us that want to try it don't have trouble finding opportunity.

The guy from Bird said several remarkable things. One thing was that the scooters his company provides are a much better fit for the capabilities of battery technology than cars are. Another was that ride sharing makes it possible to fit your transportation needs to the options of the marketplace. For example, you can take a scooter to the store and then ride home on a bike with a big basket for your purchases.

All of the speakers sounded professional and wise. If you want to find out more please visit the bikesiliconvalley.org website. Probably they even have movies of the presentations there. The gist of it all for me was that ride sharing is an excellent "last mile" solution for many people, and will be here for a while if the regulatory puzzle can be figured out right.