Why Do City Dwellers Love to Hate Scooters?

Electric scooters draw a lot of hate, but if supported well by cities, they have the potential to provide a widespread and beneficial mode of transportation.

A man rides an electric scooter in Los Angeles. Mike Blake/Reuters

CityLab.com - continues

 

Helmets would be good.

 

I have a lot of issues with these things.

1) No helmets
2) The idiots who ride these things on sidewalks
3) The fact that the lifespan for one of these scooters in the wild is less than 60 days before they're in a landfill.
4) That the companies drive multiple cars around each city picking these things up to charge them & doing the same to drop them off again.
5) They look like trash laying throughout the city.
6) The people riding them in the middle of traffic lanes, backwards against traffic, etc.

They're bad.

People complain about waiting 10 minutes for a bus to show up but will happily walk 1/2 a mile out of their way to go find one of these things.

 

I'm gonna agree on some things Mike, and a few things I gotta disagree. One thing to note, I have never rode/rented one of these, but I do feel they are much needed (esp in my home town that is San Diego, which is becoming the next LA in terms of traffic and population density)

Two examples where I see these things being "useful" are:

-during conventions, like san diego comic con. these things MOVE people from A to B ... period. damn handy when alot of streets are closed off to cars.
-after events are over, people can zip by scooter from their event (like a night club or concert) to their cars and get the heck out of down town san diego. before the era of scooters, this was accomplished with taxi's (traffic), ubers (traffic), or pedicab (traffic). the faster people exit the area, the better (imo)

 

After night club events/concerts, if the attendees have been drinking the longer it takes them to leave the better.

It is tough to respond to your posts within my quote, but I'll do my best:

1) No helmets = 100% agree, helmets are a good idea. but on the other hand, most people dont carry helmets in their man purses, so I can see why its not a rule/law.



Agreed.

2) The idiots who ride these things on sidewalks = 100% agree, people are friggin idiots. we shouldnt blame scooters for this though, its the people



The scooters make it easy/convenient. People who own bikes generally take it seriously enough because they're more invested, renting something for a few minutes is viewed as license to use it like an ass.

3) The fact that the lifespan for one of these scooters in the wild is less than 60 days before they're in a landfill. = I cant imagine this being true, this would dip into the profits of the scooter companies. If you have an interesting article to share, I'd love to read up as I am curious of how long these things last



A professor of mine gave the statistic in class, for me that's enough to take it as fact. For those who aren't in my program, here's this:


https://oversharing.substack.com/p/s...m_campaign=cta



(She cites actual data in the link)

4) That the companies drive multiple cars around each city picking these things up to charge them & doing the same to drop them off again. = this technically is not true. a lot of college students (I believe they call themselves "bird hunters") pick up scooters and charge them for extra income. though... I have seen trucks around town, scooping them up and tossing them into their cargo vans/truck beds. but I dont see this being a problem? its not diff than the trash trucks that pick up our trash weekly, right?



They often employ students to drive the trucks around, sure. I'm just saying, these things are far from "green" options.


Also garbage trucks are a public service that we agree upon. These things are wasteful private businesses.

5) They look like trash laying throughout the city. = 100% agree, they look trashy. some towns are now implementing designated locations where they are to be "docked" (parked), but .... back to the STUPID PEOPLE thing again, people ride em, and just dump em. I wish I could do that with my gk5, just roll up into work, and just park it, crooked, on teh grass and just say "screw it, this is fine". but ... I'm not stupid =)



Docking stations rather kills the 'convenience', doesn't it?


6) The people riding them in the middle of traffic lanes, backwards against traffic, etc. = stupid people ... please see above posts


Americans + rental vehicles + something 'new' and 'fun' = Stupider than average behavior.

 

so the moral of the story is .... we need to find a way to ban/deport stupid people. I'm on board, where do I sign up?

 

One thing I haven't seen anyone talk about is that for each scooter rider, that means potentially one less car on the road. And I'm sure you know, having less/more cars on the road, in a city, makes a big difference.

Scooters and bikes;
Helmets - in Cali for users over 18yrs, helmets are not needed. more info Me personally I'm always with helmet on my bike. Can't trust other people!

Riding on sidewalks is bad idea, get on the road!

Would be nice to see people start having scooter/bike ownership. Making it cheap to rent and the negatives will never disappear. Make it expensive and you'll see change for many of the neg points made above.

Have bike/scooter infrastructure on the road and many negatives are reduced. Giving out tickets for poor road use is big plus. Another big plus, scooters don't kill people! Quote on the article.........

But such safety fears should be put in context, as riders seem to pose minimal risk to anyone other than themselves. I’m not aware of a single pedestrian in the United States being killed in an e-scooter collision since Bird and Lime launched two years ago; for comparison, in 2018 alone, automobiles killed over 6,200 pedestrians in this country.

Oh yeah, having earbuds on in traffic is against the law too ( and stupid). forgot above mentioning that one.

 

I probably should have picked wiser words, but I do agree that 1 scooter can mean, 1 less car (traffic improves)

I envy places like Tokyo, and their magnificent trains. if we had that here in SD, I genuinely think traf would be less

 

I don't know if I believe in the premise here.
My feeling is that urban "rental" scooters, obviously have two polarized camps....supporters and detractors. But I think the vast majority in the middle...are indifferent.

I'd say, I'm indifferent.
I'm too old and out of shape now. So actually using one, really isn't very viable for myself. But when I see someone using one? I don't care. I don't care any more than seeing someone on a recumbent bicycle, Segway or a skateboard. Bottom line, it's just a way to get from point A to point B, and as a method, it's going to embraced by the wise, the unwise, the cautious and the fool hearty. The fact that it's a scooter? Really means nothing to me.