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I know two people who were seriously injured on them. One required facial reconstructive surgery and the other had a broken arm. Both happened soon after they b
by e40 4y ago
I know two people who were seriously injured on them. One required facial reconstructive surgery and the other had a broken arm. Both happened soon after they became ubiquitous.
I also had many close calls as a pedestrian. Some could have been very serious had I not jumped out of the way. Perhaps 5 or so of those.
From my perspective they are not worth it.
- WeylandYutani 4y agoLost count the number of times I almost got run over by an ebike- those go 30 kilometres an hour. It is a concrete jungle out there.
- panick21_ 4y agoThey need to be on bicycle infrastructure. That said, if they remove cars from the road they are worth it.
- e40 4y agoI agree with that. The problem is people. > 50% of the people I saw using the devices were on the sidewalk. And many of them that I conversed with (in a calm tone) who I told to use the street said "but it's too dangerous out there!" My retort that them being on the sidewalk was too dangerous for me fell on deaf ears.
- birdyrooster 4y agoJust yell at them and make being on the sidewalk more dangerous than the road. I throw shit in front of them or kick them off of their stupid looking scooter. Shows them. They won't try that shit in front of my home again. Best thing is that your jury will never find you guilty because that shit is annoying.
- analognoise 4y agoI can't tell if this is sarcasm anymore.
- birdyrooster 4y agoSlow descent into insanity
- taylodl 4y agoWhere I live it's illegal for adults to ride scooters (or bikes) on the sidewalk and thanks to everybody riding scooters on the sidewalk the police have begun enforcing the law. People don't want to ride the scooter in the street with traffic so scooter riding has dropped tremendously.
- e40 4y agoWhere I live, the police were told not to enforce the law to keep scooters off the sidewalk. Came from the mayor of Oakland, CA. I engaged with the Mayor's staff and they confirmed it, but soon after that they ghosted me. (Yes, I was always very polite.)
- rhaway84773 4y agoThe danger to pedestrians from 20lb scooters is very obviously a small fraction of the danger to scooters from 2ton cars. But that being said, if there isn’t sufficient bicycle lane infrastructure for the scooters to use then the city in question shouldn’t be allowing scooters in the first place. Neither roads with car traffic nor sidewalks are suitable places for them.
- kevviiinn 4y ago20lbs scooter + 200lbs human traveling at 20kph It'll do some serious damage
- em500 4y agoIn the Netherlands, the country with maybe the best biking infrastructure in the world, escooters are banned from public roads (including bike lanes), because the authorities consider them too dangerous.
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 4y agoWhy are they considered too dangerous? Won't an ebike at full speed be heavier and as such even more dangerous?
- panick21_ 4y agoI know that this is the case in Netherlands. I think they are over reacting to those and under-reacting to cars. As long as the speed is sufficiently limited, they not more dangerous then bikes.
- rhaway84773 4y agoeScooters are significantly more dangerous to riders than bikes. They have much smaller tires so they’re far more susceptible to falling because of small imperfections in the roads. They are not as easy to balance as bicycles. They are harder to see. They are harder to control. They are harder to slow down rapidly unlike a bike. There’s a whole host of fundamental physical reasons why bikes are just much safer.
- panick21_ 4y agoFor the rider, but I don't think they are more dangerous to the other people.
- yrro 4y agoHow fast do they go where you are? In the UK there are various hire schemes trialling their use. Riders must have a driving license and they are limited to 15.5 mph (depending on area, in Oxford for instance they only go up to 12.4 mph). And they are not allowed on pavements, only streets!
- e40 4y agoI would say about the same (15 mph), but maybe a little faster. The problem with mixing pedestrians and scooters is the former don't have lanes and the amount of momentum a 200 lb person has going 10 or 15 mpg is considerable. The people I saw riding on the sidewalk had no problem zipping through pedestrian traffic.