Anybody else live in a city where dockless electric scooters, and electric bikes, are becoming more and more prevalent? Bird, Lime, etc.?
Where I'm living, until a few weeks ago, you could hardly walk down a sidewalk in the city without having to step over one. They were strewn around everywhere, tipped over, clogging up the sidewalks. Finally the city has set up designated parking spaces, on the street next to the curb, the size of a parking space for a single vehicle, about every block or so, that the scooter companies now have to use.
From what I've observed is that the scooter companies seem to be obeying the new rules and dropping off scooters in these designated parking spaces. It's a tiny step in the right direction, but not enough.
One thing I've noticed, unfortunately, is that it's never seemed to be a part of San Diego bicyclist culture to alert pedestrians when approaching from behind to your presence in the first place. In Minneapolis, it's practically universal for a bicyclist to call out "on your left" or "on your right" as one approaches them from behind on greenways and paths that are shared between pedestrians and bikes. Never seen a bicyclist do that here in San Diego.
The people using scooters in this city never alert pedestrians to their presence either. I doubt they do either in cities where there's a strong bicyclist culture, unless they're a bicyclist who just happens to be using a scooter. They'll zip down the sidewalks going 10 to 20mph, completely silently, and if one were to so much as sidestep a piece of dog crap on the sidewalk, you may have stepped right into the path of a scooter now bearing down on you at speed.
You're unaware they're coming up behind you, and they're either not paying attention, or if they were, they don't have time to avoid hitting you at 20mph. Which can lead to catastrophic injuries with lifelong disability, or even death.
No pedestrian ought to be placed in this type of danger while going about their business, simply walking down a sidewalk.
I've seen a few people wipe out on these scooters, and have heard stories of deaths due to traumatic injuries and collisions with motor vehicles. I've seen teenagers and young adults recklessly weaving through multiple lanes of heavy traffic on city streets at high speeds. I've even once seen a person on a scooter weaving recklessly through traffic while pulling a friend on a skateboard ten feet behind them, who was tethered to the scooter with a rope.
The boardwalks along the harbor and beaches in this city are also plagued with scooters. There's no stoplights or at-grade crossings for any other type of traffic, and I've seen scooter users utilize the boardwalks as if they were freeways, weaving back and forth between local residents and tourists at high speeds, alerting no one to their presence, constantly but a hair's breadth from inflicting serious injury on dozens of people a minute.
Right now, these scooters seem to me to be more of a danger and nuisance than anything else.
These scooter companies have placed down millions of these things in almost every major American city, without consulting local residents or local government, and without any thought or care to the dangers they entail. They've borne no responsibility for injuries, deaths, or property damage that have occurred as a result of their poor implementation.
To me, these scooters are a plague and the way they've been implemented is haphazard and reckless.
I think that serious costs and fines ought to be imposed on these companies, and individuals who operate these devices in dangerous ways.
Where I'm living, until a few weeks ago, you could hardly walk down a sidewalk in the city without having to step over one. They were strewn around everywhere, tipped over, clogging up the sidewalks. Finally the city has set up designated parking spaces, on the street next to the curb, the size of a parking space for a single vehicle, about every block or so, that the scooter companies now have to use.
From what I've observed is that the scooter companies seem to be obeying the new rules and dropping off scooters in these designated parking spaces. It's a tiny step in the right direction, but not enough.
One thing I've noticed, unfortunately, is that it's never seemed to be a part of San Diego bicyclist culture to alert pedestrians when approaching from behind to your presence in the first place. In Minneapolis, it's practically universal for a bicyclist to call out "on your left" or "on your right" as one approaches them from behind on greenways and paths that are shared between pedestrians and bikes. Never seen a bicyclist do that here in San Diego.
The people using scooters in this city never alert pedestrians to their presence either. I doubt they do either in cities where there's a strong bicyclist culture, unless they're a bicyclist who just happens to be using a scooter. They'll zip down the sidewalks going 10 to 20mph, completely silently, and if one were to so much as sidestep a piece of dog crap on the sidewalk, you may have stepped right into the path of a scooter now bearing down on you at speed.
You're unaware they're coming up behind you, and they're either not paying attention, or if they were, they don't have time to avoid hitting you at 20mph. Which can lead to catastrophic injuries with lifelong disability, or even death.
No pedestrian ought to be placed in this type of danger while going about their business, simply walking down a sidewalk.
I've seen a few people wipe out on these scooters, and have heard stories of deaths due to traumatic injuries and collisions with motor vehicles. I've seen teenagers and young adults recklessly weaving through multiple lanes of heavy traffic on city streets at high speeds. I've even once seen a person on a scooter weaving recklessly through traffic while pulling a friend on a skateboard ten feet behind them, who was tethered to the scooter with a rope.
The boardwalks along the harbor and beaches in this city are also plagued with scooters. There's no stoplights or at-grade crossings for any other type of traffic, and I've seen scooter users utilize the boardwalks as if they were freeways, weaving back and forth between local residents and tourists at high speeds, alerting no one to their presence, constantly but a hair's breadth from inflicting serious injury on dozens of people a minute.
Right now, these scooters seem to me to be more of a danger and nuisance than anything else.
These scooter companies have placed down millions of these things in almost every major American city, without consulting local residents or local government, and without any thought or care to the dangers they entail. They've borne no responsibility for injuries, deaths, or property damage that have occurred as a result of their poor implementation.
To me, these scooters are a plague and the way they've been implemented is haphazard and reckless.
I think that serious costs and fines ought to be imposed on these companies, and individuals who operate these devices in dangerous ways.
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