Stand up scooters (as opposed to motorcycle-style scooters, for clarity) are best suited to short-distance travel, as an alternative to walking more so than an

Stand up scooters (as opposed to motorcycle-style scooters, for clarity) are best suited to short-distance travel, as an alternative to walking more so than an alternative to cars, bicycles or motorcycles/scooters. That makes them very well suited to last mile transportation, getting you to and from the nearest public transit point, especially since most models fold for easy transport on a bus or train. As standalone personal transportation, they are handy for going a few city blocks while carrying at most a shoulder bag or backpack. Compare this to (e-)bikes and electric motorcycles/scooters, which can carry significantly larger amounts of cargo, are inherently more stable to ride and cope well with less optimal road surfaces that would be troublesome for the small wheels on a stand up scooter. Especially for parts of the world with less-maintained roads or a high amount of dirt roads, a basic bike is vastly superior to a stand up scooter. Similarly, the tiny electric cars mentioned in the article have more carrying capacity and as a bonus feature they shield you more from the elements. Personally I don't mind throwing on a rain poncho and rain pants when riding in adverse conditions, but not everyone is comfortable doing that. Getting people into these tiny cars is much preferable to them driving a large (possibly electric) car in the city. They're an affordable and gentler alternative to traditional cars, not a replacement for low-profile personal transport like stand up scooters and bikes. They may displace motorcycles/scooters, but I count than as either a wash or perhaps a win, if they get 2-stroke scooters off the roads. As for the legal issues surrounding stand up scooters, I understand why some scooter sharing apps and companies have been called out and in some cases banned. They litter the cities with scooters, don't care if they're just strewn around everywhere, blocking sidewalks and bike paths, and they use barely-paid gig economy workers in open ugly competition with each other, as their recharging "solution". But in some places even personal electric stand up scooters have been banned or at least have not been made explicitly legal on bike paths. That is an absolute travesty, we need as many people as possible to use low-impact transportation instead of their cars.