Let’s talk about e scooters

[creadinger]

@arlrider 180458 wrote:

An absolute figure just begging to be normalized by a population size…would not surprise me if the scooters were in fact more dangerous per mile or hour of use. Of course, they’re also early in the adoption curve and there has been little policy work directed at them, so it would be expected that these would be the subject of relatively more incidents than a more mature technology with established policy and infrastructure.

They also may already surpass bicycles with regard to embarrassingly bad “journalism”…. like this story from Cleveland.com. https://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2018/08/woman_riding_electric_scooter.html

You wouldn’t know it from the headline, but the driver of the car was 19 and drunk! And it ends with this brilliant bit – “The scooters have been known to cause injuries to their riders in 32 other American cities where they’ve appeared over the past year.”

Yeah! Injuries tend to happen when you get drunk and mow people down in your cars!

[sjclaeys]

@TwoWheelsDC 180450 wrote:

37000+ people died in cars in 2016.

I’m not really seeing the purpose of the reply. Just saw the article cited in the Axios daily email and shared it without comment one way or another. arlrider makes a good point about normalizing by population size though.

[lordofthemark]

@sjclaeys 180461 wrote:

I’m not really seeing the purpose of the reply. Just saw the article cited in the Axios daily email and shared it without comment one way or another. arlrider makes a good point about normalizing by population size though.

Axios. Buzzfeed. We have *insert scottish accent* STANDARDS.

[PeteD]

LA Times vs Buzzfeed?

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-bird-scooter-vandalism-20180809-story.html

[TwoWheelsDC]

@sjclaeys 180461 wrote:

I’m not really seeing the purpose of the reply. Just saw the article cited in the Axios daily email and shared it without comment one way or another. arlrider makes a good point about normalizing by population size though.

It wasn’t meant as a criticism of you. It’s the sensationalist reporting on some pretty minor injuries from scooters while no one bats an eye at the carnage caused by cars.

On the issue of normalizing the stats, I just don’t buy it. Maybe if you just count all injuries as the same, but people aren’t getting crushed and maimed by scooters, and scooters don’t crash through houses and storefronts on a daily basis. I’d wager that, even accounting for population and miles traveled, the level of economic loss caused by car crashes far outweighs that caused by injuries from all other modes combined…especially once you factor in externalities like pollution.

[huskerdont]

John Oliver did a bit on the tariffs for e-scooters and said that anything that kept their numbers down would be a good thing. I think they have a bit of an image problem overall. I don’t mind them in concept, but I feel about the same toward them zipping around on sidewalks full of pedestrians as I do when I see an irresponsible cyclist zipping around on a sidewalk full of pedestrians. If someone uses them instead of a car, that’s a good thing, but do they, or are they mostly being used for shorter trips such as the last mile from the Metro?

[lordofthemark]

@huskerdont 180467 wrote:

John Oliver did a bit on the tariffs for e-scooters and said that anything that kept their numbers down would be a good thing. I think they have a bit of an image problem overall. I don’t mind them in concept, but I feel about the same toward them zipping around on sidewalks full of pedestrians as I do when I see an irresponsible cyclist zipping around on a sidewalk full of pedestrians. If someone uses them instead of a car, that’s a good thing, but do they, or are they mostly being used for shorter trips such as the last mile from the Metro?

I especially welcome them on the “protected bike lane” by the Wharf. The scooter users may see it as a sidewalk, but the scooters there may deter pedestrians from using it (and the pedestrians should not be using it, but I don’t want to make that complaint as a cyclist) and the scooters are fast enough, they are less of a problem for people on bikes than the peds there.

And using them for the last mile from metro is a good thing. It may make metro useable for people who otherwise would drive.

[sjclaeys]

“Peter’s Take” weekly column in ArlNOW is on e-scooters: https://www.arlnow.com/2018/08/23/peters-take-more-thoughts-on-arlingtons-docketless-vehicle-pilot/ (posting does not necessarily constitute endorsement or agreement). For those not familiar with ArlNOW’s weekly columnists, Peter’s column seems to reflect the establishment Democratic point of view, since ArlNOW has a separate “Progressive” column.

[rcannon100]

Ftw

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[ursus]

Does anyone know if Bike-O-Meters count scooters?

[Drewdane]

eScooters look fun. Unfortunately, there never seem to be any parked near my work, which is where I’m most likely to rent one.

I used to ride a folding kick scooter before Capital Bikeshare put a kiosk right by my building, and I generally had no trouble keeping up in bike lanes once I worked up a head of steam. OTOH, while riding my kick scooter worked fine on sidewalks, I’ve had at least two close calls from clueless asshats weaving their way through pedestrians at top speed on eScooters.

[semperiden]

I don’t mind them as a concept. I have even considered buying one. I have a problem with the way some people ride them though. Twice this week I have had to break to a complete stop because they have come straight at me cutting through people. It is just a matter of time before I crash with one. Some of them use headphones and swerve around the bike path, so of course they can’t hear bike bells and won’t let you pass.

[AlexandriaBiker]

A little late to this party but I will throw my .02 in here. I fully support scooters and e-bikes and want to see them in the bike lanes. Anything we can do to increase demand for “alternative transportation lanes” makes them more viable for the community. And scooters and e-bikes offer transportation to people that dont have or dont want access to cars. Yes the riders dont follow the law all the time and that is unfortunate. The same is true for drivers of large gas powered vehicles and that is unfortunate too.

[Erin Potter]

@ursus 180480 wrote:

Does anyone know if Bike-O-Meters count scooters?

How intriguing. I will ask around.

[baiskeli]

@semperiden 180490 wrote:

I don’t mind them as a concept. I have even considered buying one. I have a problem with the way some people ride them though. Twice this week I have had to break to a complete stop because they have come straight at me cutting through people. It is just a matter of time before I crash with one. Some of them use headphones and swerve around the bike path, so of course they can’t hear bike bells and won’t let you pass.

Scooters are to cyclists as cyclists are to motorists.

[Author]

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