Electric scooters

Are these electric scooters all over the place where you live? Here in Paris it seems there's as many electric scooters as tourists right now. Someone got killed on one a couple days ago, just around the corner from me (didn't yield to a truck, turns out the truck driver was high). Are they good or bad?

I was in Paris last week and was startled by the sheer amount: they really are everywhere. My wife and I almost bet on the imminence of a trotinette-related death and, lo and behold, it happened that very evening, in the 18ème. I'm tempted to say more dud than classic at this point, but a hard-coded decrease in maximum speed may change that.

Yeah, they're everywhere. And I immediately think badly of anyone who rides one of these. Awful, awful, takes space from bicycles, have no idea how they were ever allowed, and the companies seem Elon Musk style duplicitous.

The maire is trying to put laws into place to limit speed, where they can park, where they can drive, but they're so easy to use that I don't see the cops being able to police them adequately.

We had an army of rental bikes last year at this time but those are long gone now, replaced by the scooters.

It's also really weird to see people piling a bunch of them on top of each other and riding them en l'état.

those are people who are taking them home to charge them, no? people freelance as chargers for them, and so people are competing with each other to collect the most they can at once.

Ah, I hadn't realized.

In our city, the scooters aren't allowed on the street, but are allowed on the sidewalk.

I can't express just how frustrating this is as a pedestrian. We've got enough doofuses on bikes on the sidewalk as it is.

they weave between cars on the street here, like motorcycles but much slower. my front window opens on a major boulevard and so I can watch the chaos all day. you'd be unwise to drive a car here, to drive one of these is even more silly, but yet here we are.

They occupy bicycle lanes here.

in L.A. they're everywhere, they're okay i suppose but they wind up just being litter with the way people scatter them everywhere haphazardly.

I've only seen them in LA, but i guess i don't spend a lot of time in bigger cities. dreading their arrival in vancouver

electric scooters plus tourists just seems like a hellish combo

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/11/man-killed-while-riding-e-scooter-on-french-motorway?CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium=&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1565522419

travelling on a motorway fast lane on a e-scooter after midnight = low sympathy rating/darwin award stupidity. The motorcyclist who crashed into him might end up a fatality as well, so extra low sympathy rating.

I'm afraid that if I try one I'll like it.

I hate these things so much.

darwin award

How hopelessly insensitive of you.

j/k, this was my first thought as well.

downtown Oakland sidewalks are littered with these pieces of shit.

People on scooters can gtfo

F you and your scooter

This also applies to people on mopeds

i hate them, an offensive incursion into uncommercial public space by irresponsible 'disruptive' corporations

I rode one last week and it was so fun! But the bikes are better for longer distances and for getting a little bit of exercise while getting across town.

my work is 5 km from my home and for me, it's ideal (no real traffic that early in the morning and only offices or factories). It's too far to walk (45 minutes), you're sweaty with a bicycle in Summer and in your windproof Winter/rain clothes even though it's only 5 km. using the car isn't good for the car, there's no direct public transport. The only negative thing are the small wheels, they get unstable/slip on wet groubd quite easily.

grouNd.

but anyway, yes, fuck the people who ride them in crowded city centers.

plus, the ones you can rent are the cheapest ones and they suck, there are much better ones for sale. better suspension, torque, brakes, lights, everything.

I care less about the ones being used than the ones littering the pavement, generally knocked on their side, just another thing to disrupt the flow of pedestrians. You can't just dump them in the canal or river, or even just in a dumpster, because that will damage the environment. ugh

I was in Paris last week and was startled by the sheer amount: they really are everywhere.

Same here, I was there at the end of August.

yeah, I mean, I can see 5 of them as I type this message---granted, my flat overlooks a boulevard with heavy traffic, but they're omnipresent. They're clogging parking garages too, apparently, where people who collect them to be charged hook them up to power outlets that they don't have to pay for. But then many of these get left in the garages, since there's no incentive for the people charging them to put them back on the streets (you get a nominal fee from the business for each one you collect, I think). But I just read today that the city has charged one of the operators 300k euros for this, and the company has paid. at least that's something...

An advocate for people with disabilities is suing the city of Minneapolis and two electric scooter sharing companies, alleging the vehicles have made sidewalks inaccessible.https://t.co/ruRk4J2FDI

— MPR News (@MPRnews) October 17, 2019

yeah Noah McCourt is a whole thing.... don't know how to feel about him

oh is he the guy who's been going around suing the shit out of everybody to get them to comply with the a.d.a.

he's on a lot of suits but I think you're thinking of another guy, he's young... autistic, GOP, black, think he ran for some office, sued a police department, just kind of all over the place, like I genuinely don't know what to think other than there's a lot going on there

God, when these things seriously hit London (City of Fools), it'll be absolute mayhem.

https://i.imgur.com/BIZnx0R.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/OjeaQIS.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/78G7OUl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/uSxiMxz.jpg

haaaa

They're everywhere in my city (Krakow) and they are *awful*. These companies must hire people to leave freshly juiced scooters in the middle of sidewalks in a ploy to make them more visible and (literally) unavoidable. I refuse to believe most actual users are this dickish; I can well imagine companies are.

I know someone who got one of these a couple of months ago, they've already broken their arm falling off it

These have been everywhere in my town for the past few months although they are about to go away because the pilot program is ending. I’ve never ridden one myself but my impression has been that they seem to attract a level of outrage out of any proportion to the danger or inconvenience to the average person. I can see why they attract vitriol- the riders tend to be young healthy people who seem to be having fun. Personally I’m willing to step over the occasional one left in the middle of the sidewalk if it will get a few people to not drive.

https://www.protocol.com/bird-pivots-to-qr-codes

the other day i suddenly remembered that the scooters will be back in town in a few months and i got angry immediately

the empire never ended

Saw a guy on one in London yesterday riding up the middle of the road, quite the thing.

Seen a handful of (mad) people commuting on these beauties over the last couple of years - they can go as fast as the scooters even uphill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggkSD5RMtRs

I wish I was young enough to get one of these things tbh

Porn for those who loathe these things:

https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-pulls-the-plug-on-e-scooters-on-its-territory

they're not as numerous right now as they were at the outset but we'll see as it gets warmer. right now there are more of the dumb über-funded red bikes everywhere than scooters.

It's really kicking off in Paris now! pic.twitter.com/GPnWJFYlje

— Jerome Roos (@JeromeRoos) June 2, 2020

finally a good use of them

sous les trottinettes, les pavés!

nice

There's something supercilious about the way riders on these just like, stand there. They also seem like they won't stop very easily.

Cycle lanes around here are already a hazard and inconvenience (and impediment to physical distancing) for pedestrians as they are invariably carved out of pavements that are too narrow to begin with.

These things are suddenly everywhere.

I was out walking yesterday and I passed a couple who were scooting down the bike lane next to the sidewalk. Meanwhile a young woman on foot was also in the cycle lane walking towards them, and staring at her phone. The male scooter-rider starts yelling "That's a funny-looking bike!" to get her to move.

But, like, an electric scooter is also a funny-looking bike. Also, pedestrians are frequently pushed into the bike lanes because of distancing. And generally when shouting at people in public it's better to be clear and direct rather than clever.

One of the best aspects of the pandemic has been these things disappearing off the streets.

Haven’t disappeared here. The city’s regulating them more though.

They're still a plague in East London.

from a purely selfish pov of flying down the road with the wind breezing through your hair - they are fun though!

I have always wanted to try one, but like... in an abandoned car park or half-built subdivision or something

I used to take my severely disabled son going down the wrong side of a dual carriageway on a quiet stretch so straight you could see 250 metres ahead if a car was coming. I'm not condoning that kind of behaviour, but it was fun! But ftr it wasn't a standard dual carriageway, it was one built out of necessity to accommodate a load of pylons running smack bang through the middle of a housing estate.

I thought these had only just been made legal in the UK?

They're still a plague in East London.

The more Tracer reports back from East London the more it seems like a different world from North London!

Electric scooters New York, 1918 pic.twitter.com/icPtVjyTP1

— Zsuzsanna (@2x2sometimes5) September 17, 2020