Electric scooters

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