Adult scooters??

[CanIscoot123]

Hi All, just looking for opinions here!

I am currently doing a weekly commute from the city where I live, to another city for work (200 miles away). I stay there for 4 days and stay with my parents 3 nights (1 hr away from work).

My problem is the classic "last mile problem". It takes 40 mins to walk to the train station from home (~2 miles), and 15 minutes from the train to work, and another 15 from train to my parents house... I have dodgy knees and all this walking has me in agony...

So I'm thinking, should I get a scooter? I keep seeing people on the adult e-scooters, and have tried them on holiday in Berlin, and thought they were great! I know they're currently illegal though (although likely to change) so could alternatively get a kick scooter, which I think would be better than walking but not as good as electric...

What do you think? Which would be more useful? And do adults on scooters look like prats??

If it makes any difference, I'm almost 30, fairly tall and not at all cool-looking.

I really want one but where I live, I would stand out and look like a total dick. I would try one if I lived in London /Brighton or somewhere cool.

Haha London is where I work... Taking it on the tube would be a pro - I saw a guy with one (folded) the other day and turned green withenvy immediately

as you note, e-scooters are illegal. And no scooter should be on the pavement, adult or child. The only legal wheels on the pavement are pushchairs and wheelchairs.

fold up bike?

What is the legalities of riding a scooter on a pavement? (Presumably that's where you were thinking of being?) You can't use a bike on a pavement.

I’d get an electric one in your situation. You’ll look like an early adopter, not a prat

I’ve got an electric Brompton which is great, but more to carry than a scooter.

Just check the power levels if you’ve got any serious hills to do. The Pure Scooters website has a buying guide I think.

Oh I wouldn’t ride it on the pavement. People ride them on the road in London.

Im sure they will stay illegal on pavements. They belong on the road. Just have lights and hi-viz, same as for a bike.

Oh god, please don't let there be another adult scooter phase. I don't think I can bear another round of suited bankers dicking about on their shiny scooters.

I wouldn't ride it on the pavement, I think that's dangerous and annoying!
I've been a cyclist for years so I'd treat it like that - lights, hi-vis jacket etc!

@TheLidoOfThighs my route wouldn't exactly be hilly but there are a few long inclines

I've considered a fold up bike, but they're very expensive (for a brompton - and the cheaper ones don't fold very small), and pretty heavy to carry around

Assuming it’s like an electric bike, you don’t need to worry unless they are steep. I agree a scooter makes more sense in your situation.

@CanIscoot123 Firstly, yes lots of people do ride adult scooters including my Dh and we are not in London. Just another big city. He parks up close to the place he works in the city centre and scoots in. On the pavement.

So let's get into legalities. Laws written about pavement use were written 200 hundred years ago. For full information you can have a look here on Swifty Scooter's website and the place my Dh bought his scooter.

Also from Swifty Scooter's website
But for a quick look here are two sections of the law that concerned riding on the pavement. The first is the 1835 Highway Act, Section 72. Which describes ‘carriages of any description being illegal on the footway’.

The second is the 1988 Road Traffic Act, section 34, saying that ‘any mechanically propelled vehicles should be ridden on the road’. So you could say that as a non-mechanically propelled vehicle, as scooter falls outside this clause. Whether a scooter can be defined as a ‘carriage’ is debatable. Swifty Scooters have been asking DfT for exclusion of this clause. Scooters are not allowed on cycle lanes currently.

The main thing about riding on a pavement is don't be a dick. I am not sure if just being a suited banker makes you a dick so the scooter part is irrelevant surely?

Oh and the above act quotes sledges being used on pavements as illegal so are all those parents sledging their children home from school on snowy days are breaking the law?

I think the speed at which they travel makes them more suited to the road, they are far more comparable to bikes than sledges (or indeed mobility scooters, which can only legally be used on the pavement at up to 4mph, which is a brisk walking pace). You don’t use them at walking pace because if you did, why would you bother having a scooter, unless you had a mobility issue, you’d just walk! Unless you’d also argue that bikes ridden slowly belong on pavements? Personally I don’t think that’s practical on a busy pavement.

I cycle to work and am often pedalling away like the fury into a headwind when a guy on an e-scooter sails past me. He must be doing 12-15mph. We’re quite rural at this point and the nearest village is at least 3 miles behind us so I suspect he commutes about 5 miles to work on the scooter. He’s quicker than me and not breaking a sweat. Some days I’m quite envious.

Can you put lights on a scooter that drivers would be able to see?

You are not to use them on the road. Please take this from someone who owns an adult kick scooter.

As per the above link from Swifty Scooters "kick-scooters should be ridden on the pavement or walkway, and not on the road"

Swifty Scooters has looked into this extensively and contacted Department of Transport for clarification. They have been selling these since 2011. They know what they are talking about and the grey area of the law written hundreds of years ago and refers to mules as well. I would say that uphill you could never achieve the same speeds a bike could hence why it is advised, as with children's scooters, that you ride on the pavement.

When Dh bought his scooter he travelled over to Manchester and the owner checked it could fit in his boot of Dh's car and then built the scooter for him there and then, they and had a massive conversation about the whole thing of pavements etc.

As for why not walk? I believe that falls into the fun sponge category. I used to ride Ds's scooter back to the car from the school run. It was completely fun.

I use a kick scooter on a cycle path for th 'last mile". Saves so much time. I wouldn't like to use it on a busy pavement though.

I don't really care what people think of me because it is fun and it saves me money (parking charges) and time every day and also keeps my car our of the already too polluted town centre.

A kick scooter is totally different though, TreeClimbingCat they don’t reach the same speeds at all. The OP is talking about electric scooters.

They are faster than normal bikes uphill (unless you’re talking someone in serious training, in which case about the same), and about the same as an e-bike. I live on one of the steepest hills on London, used by cyclists in training, which I ride an e-bike up. A couple of neighbours now have e-scooters. You wouldn’t ride a kick scooter up it, it’s hard to enough to bloody walk!

Doing you out the lights on you, as many cyclists do.

@TheLidoOfThighs - right, so more reasons for the local youth to totally take the piss out of the crazy middle aged woman.

Some places are just awful for small minded idiots if you do anything slightly out of the norm .

Doing I know what you mean but I think you just have to own it! When I ride my Brompton outside London I get a lot of curious looks and kids and teenagers are fascinated. I just smile and wave.

I have a folding kick scooter. It's brilliant. Fun to use and saves loads of time. I ride it round the village sometimes and I'm in my 40s.Better than a bike in many ways as theyre easy to take on public transport. Don't get one with tiny wheels though, get the slightly bigger wheels about 6 inches diameter

I get a lot more use out of my (kick) scooter than my bike as I can fold it up and stick it under a chair at my destination.

I got it for keeping up with the DCs when they are on theirs or on their bikes, easier than having to keep up a run at someone else's pace and saves the whole problem of how the hell do you supervise a child on a pavement if you're not supposed to be riding your bike on it (and aren't the greatest cyclist to be playing with traffic either). Being short, mine is a children's model, but DH has an adult one from Decathlon.

I don't scoot around busy areas and as ever in life, most issues are avoided by being aware of what's around you and not being a knob.