Writing from Oakland, where I have a suspicion that many of the scooters taken off San Francisco streets for their permit monitoriom have ended up. Point being

Writing from Oakland, where I have a suspicion that many of the scooters taken off San Francisco streets for their permit monitoriom have ended up. Point being that there’s a LOT of these scooters around. I think they’re great. I keep wondering where the people complaining about the carelessly left scooters are living, because the majority of the scooters in town are dropped off considerately, and don’t take up more space than bikes. I think the backlash against the scooters is driven by people who don’t like tech, and by people who believe transit solutions should be driven (and owned) by the government. The scooters solve a problem, are dirt cheap to use, are available to anyone with a phone, and are environmentally friendly. The externalities are nonzero but not larger than bikes. There’s a lot to like.