SF is doing a reasonable job, they should be commended for not coming down hard on the scooters. The "tech companies are privatizing the streets" meme doesn't

SF is doing a reasonable job, they should be commended for not coming down hard on the scooters. The "tech companies are privatizing the streets" meme doesn't make sense. Any scooters are less objectionable than the private cars that killed 14 pedestrians last year. Delivery vans are corporations taking up space on the street. The street has benches, planters, parked bikes, phone boxes, mail boxes, and 20 other "private" things. The public street is for shared use by everyone, not a commercial free zone of only charming activities. The whole thing is pretty wild. For example the scooters are all unlocked, the app just turns on the electric motor. That seems crazy to me, every kid in the city is going to borrow them. And I've seen a bunch of homeless people kick pushing them down the street. So maybe they all end up in backyards, and the companies go out of business. But maybe I'm wrong and it's a minor problem. They make enough to pay for the loses, and become a nice transportation option. Long term there's certainly a place for permitting, but it's much better to do permissive experiments than to guess every possible downside. As a counterexample, NY is still confiscating electric bikes. What a waste. https://www.outsideonline.com/2298141/are-we-living-golden-age-cycling https://www.outsideonline.com/2298141/are-we-living-golden-a... Kudos to SF for experimenting.