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I live in the UK where these devices are basically nonexistent due to not being legal on either roads or pavements. I hadn’t been to the US for a couple of year

I live in the UK where these devices are basically nonexistent due to not being legal on either roads or pavements. I hadn’t been to the US for a couple of years, so I hadn’t seen them in action, but I just visited San Diego last week and holy shit these things are everywhere, and an absolute menace. They were all over the sidewalks obstructing access; they were abandoned in the Tijuana River nature reserve; I had a number of close calls with careless riders, and talked to more than one person who’d been in an actual traffic collision with them. There’s nothing wrong with the concept, and it’s great to be able to move people to more sustainable methods of transport - but it definitely seems like some kind of regulation is needed for provision of safe docking areas, penalties for unsafe usage etc.

tbihl 8y ago
On the other hand, I live in San Diego, and cars act as menaces far more often than scooters when I'm around, probably at a 5:1 ratio. They do menace differently, but I do appreciate how much less dangerously the scooters do it. For example, when someone parks a scooter in a right of way, it's irksome. When someone parks an SUV in a right of way (too close to corner) it makes it dangerous to pull out of that intersection. When scooter riders act entitled to the sidewalk where I'm walking, I can easily bear off. When a driver acts entitled to the road where I'm biking, they often do it by riding only a few feet behind me while laying on the horn. The scooters seem like better neighbors to me.