Counting scooters "strewn" on the trails – MVT at the CCC to the Jefferson

[huskerdont]

One dark winter morning I moved one off the middle of the Custis near the spur that goes to Ballston. It didn’t roll and it was heavier than I expected. It already had a fairly loud alarm going off before I even picked it up; I felt bad for the people in the town houses right next to the trail.

[dasgeh]

@dbb 189524 wrote:

If you know who in Arlington has or will receive the counts for the MVT from this week, please share. What frequency do you think the data is provided? Is the data public or proprietary?

I do not, but mobility@arlingtonva.us does. They’ve been very responsive and they are eager to work this out because they see scooters as a transportation option to cars (i.e. good) but recognize that there are issues to be worked out.

[lordofthemark]

1. There has been craziness with scooters around the mall and tidal basin lately? Its Cherry Blossom time. Craziness in all modes. Sure. To note though, I have seen scooters ridden in orderly and proper ways (and as lawfully, or more so, than bikes) on Eye Street bike lanes, on Maine PBL, etc all winter. Last weekend I was in Old Town and saw some being ridden properly (in the street, not on the sidewalk) there.

2. The rates for them are high (at least one company its a dollar to unlock and then a dollar per 15 minutes?) and they seem to get a lot of use, so I am not sure they are losing money even with the one month service lives (that’s based on a study in Louisville I think? The scooter companies keep this info close to the vest I think) Also I read an article suggesting that they are looking at more resilient scooters with significantly longer service lives. I am not sure that the scooter business will survive, but I don’t think it can be ruled out based on what we currently observe.

3. I continue to think that the way to address scooters on trails is with pickup with trailer pulled by electric bikes – whether by the scooter companies, or by NPS and charged back to the scooter companies. Unfortunately electric bikes are still not legal on NPS property, or on the bridge sidepaths. Perhaps those policies need to be reviewed.

[lordofthemark]

@huskerdont 189531 wrote:

One dark winter morning I moved one off the middle of the Custis near the spur that goes to Ballston. It didn’t roll and it was heavier than I expected. It already had a fairly loud alarm going off before I even picked it up; I felt bad for the people in the town houses right next to the trail.

We hear car alarms probably once a week or so, always at night, and we live on the 12th floor. When we have our windows open we can hear the buzz of traffic from King Street (we are not right on King Street) Worse when its a loud truck or motorcycle.

On Seminary Road there are people who live close to the traffic speeding along at or in excess of 40MPH (its (controversially) a 25MPH zone, but without traffic calming it gets lots of much faster traffic). Yet the opponents of traffic calming there ignore the noise impact on neighbors and insist that a road diet there is all about the evil bike lobby. (Please see Judd’s post on that if you live in Alexandria and want to vote on it)

I would love to have a local policy focus on the noise impacts of passenger transportation. If that were done seriously, it would mean focusing on the issues presented by cars and trucks, not scooters.

[huskerdont]

@lordofthemark 189534 wrote:

We hear car alarms probably once a week or so, always at night, and we live on the 12th floor. When we have our windows open we can hear the buzz of traffic from King Street (we are not right on King Street) Worse when its a loud truck or motorcycle.

On Seminary Road there are people who live close to the traffic speeding along at or in excess of 40MPH (its (controversially) a 25MPH zone, but without traffic calming it gets lots of much faster traffic). Yet the opponents of traffic calming there ignore the noise impact on neighbors and insist that a road diet there is all about the evil bike lobby. (Please see Judd’s post on that if you live in Alexandria and want to vote on it)

I would love to have a local policy focus on the noise impacts of passenger transportation. If that were done seriously, it would mean focusing on the issues presented by cars and trucks, not scooters.

Pointing out the alarm noise of this one scooter was not meant to minimize the effects from the noise of automobile, motorcycle, and truck traffic. However, I did feel the scooter’s alarm was somehow annoying, ineffective, and sad all at the same time, and it seems odd that they’d bother with an alarm for something that was built to be destroyed.

I would certainly hope no one thinks any time needs to be spent on a policy related to scooter noise? That’s kind of an odd statement.

[lordofthemark]

Just about everything made by man is built to be destroyed. A service life of ten years is an expected service life as surely as an expected service life of one month is (again to note we don’t know the actual service lives of each company’s scooter, and IIUC they are trying to increase the service lives) I imagine adding the alarm feature is not costly at all, and seems similar to that which I first heard on a dockless bike some time ago. I am pretty sure they don’t want their scooters stolen.

The City where I live is currently doing a dockless pilot (all scooters so far, I think). In every public forum there are loads of complaints about scooters. Often complaints about things that, if you made the same complaint about cars in the same forums, you would be called out for being part of the war on cars. If I even post to say that I have seen scooters being used properly in Alexandria, I am called out as a “biker” (whose word cannot be trusted). Have no doubt, many people in my City want the dockless scooter program ended and e scooters banned. (Many of the same folk would be happy to ban bikes from the streets, to eliminate vision zero, etc)

Scooters aren’t perfect, and hopefully a result of pilot projects will be improved regulation. But I am getting fed up with all the scooter kvetching, when every day, from streets to community meetings, I see problems with drivers and windshield perspective.

[huskerdont]

@lordofthemark 189538 wrote:

But I am getting fed up with all the scooter kvetching…

Sounds like a personal problem.

I’m just going to ride my bike and let it all settle how it will. They’re here, it’s fine, I doubt they’ll be around forever, but we’ll see.

[lordofthemark]

@huskerdont 189540 wrote:

I’m just going to ride my bike and let it all settle how it will.

I am going to continue to advocate for a multimodal future. Including opposing what I perceive to be unfair attacks on the dockless program. How the future settles out depends on what we as citizens do, IMO.

[huskerdont]

@lordofthemark 189541 wrote:

I am going to continue to advocate for a multimodal future. Including opposing what I perceive to be unfair attacks on the dockless program. How the future settles out depends on what we as citizens do, IMO.

Fine, but you have perceived “unfair attacks” where none were intended. If someone observing a scooter beeping in the trail and setting it off to the side gets you all bunched up, good luck to you. Peace.

[lordofthemark]

I think my point is being missed, but that’s okay. This isn’t worth pursuing.

[phog]

@Steve O 189530 wrote:

So did you leave your motorcycle strewn about?

Lol no, I work at the Library of Congress near the Capitol, and there is ample motorcycle and bicycle parking for anyone who wants it (cars are king, very competitive to get car parking. So I usually keep a bicycle at work, even on motorcycle commuting days, and the bike rack on the MC allows some commute flexibility.
About those scoots dropped everywhere, I’m not kvetching about them, I think they’re OK, but it is really novel and amazing to see them all. I guess my mind is not used to seeing something of value unsecured. Lithium batteries are expensive! Any enterprising thief could cut them out in seconds with cutting tool (powered by lithium batteries, natch). I don’t know how a scooter abandoned on a path like the MVT after dark stands a chance of lasting long enough for a contractor to tend to them before a thief takes or fillets them, or a cretinous vandal tosses it into the Potomac.

[Hancockbs]

@ChristoB50 189529 wrote:

One of them, after I’d moved it perhaps 10 feet from its badly-parked location, suddenly started talking to me with a recording, “Do not move the scooter. If you continue to move the scooter, police will be notified” or words to that effect…

Perhaps this is one answer. Move them at enough for the police to be called.

[bentbike33]

@phog 189548 wrote:

I don’t know how a scooter abandoned on a path like the MVT after dark stands a chance of lasting long enough for a contractor to tend to them before a thief takes or fillets them, or a cretinous vandal tosses it into the Potomac.

For the record, I did not toss any scooters into the Potomac, or see anyone else do such a thing. Personally, I’m too lazy to get off my bike for such activity. I just considered it a distinct possibility given the angry invective I was hearing hurled in their direction.

I have wondered, however, if it would be possible to hang the scooters by their handlebars from the 14th Street Bridge guardrail in such a way that they were largely suspended over the river rather than blocking the sidepath.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

I counted on my last commute (Memorial Bridge, Iwo, Ft. Cass trail, Pershing). My final tally was…all of them. All of the scooters are scattered along that route. Probably because there’s no place for a jobber in a car to pull over and fetch them for recharge.

[ChristoB50]

Four days in San Antonio for a conference this week has opened my eyes to how “bad” it could be… scooters simply everywhere! This morning walking 3 long blocks from hotel to convention, I counted 47 scooters in place. Dozens on the sidewalk in a single block, then repeated block after block. Some are Razor—which enable stand or sit, with far bigger diameter tires… the rest are traditional Bird or Lyft style. Riders zip down the sidewalks and down the streets equally. There are some sections of sidewalk here and there with painted areas as “Designated Parking” for scooters but they are only slightly more heavily used than abandon in place. Quite a sight…

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