Anyone else hate those electric scooters

[canyouextrapol]

I have no idea why they are considered a good thing. They seem to be exclusively ridden by absolute wankers. Came round a tight one way corner today to find two blokes in the middle of the road riding towards me. The other day one was riding along on the pavement then just rode out in front of me without looking. Another just zipped in front of me as I was turning off a roundabout. They are winding me up!

They're absolutely insane the men round here.

Just the other day, guy in a Scooter on the main road, cut across traffic to go the wrong way down a one way street.

One dude going the wrong way on the roundabout, so instead of going all the way round and taking the 3rd exit... He just turned right and went the wrong way.

The lads in the village just zooming off the oath to cross the road without looking or any warning.

Some guy was driving his along the slip road down to a busy 2 lane A road....

Madness!

They're mainly ridden by men in their teens and 20s on the pavement around here. Sometimes you get two teenagers riding on one together. No one seems to know the law and I've never seen the police enforce it. If I tell one of them to get off the pavement I get an earful of "fuck off". I hate them.

He'd (in theory) have to pass a test and spend a bit more than a couple of hundred on that.

Also, these lads are sometimes (often?) drug running, this has made life way easier for them.

Yes they are annoying, I see people mentioning teens but it’s mostly adults that ride them where I am, quite a few of them at my kids school who pick up their kids on them with no helmets, I don’t care about them that’s their choice but not even a helmet on their kid then they have them in front of them on the scooter. One of that dads who is about 50ish (so not just 17 year olds riding them) where I live rides his kid on it in the mornings, he rides so dangerously in the middle of the main road and the school is down a very steep hill, our school send out emails asking parents not to collect their kids on them but they’ve been ignored, we are not in an area doing trials either they are just standard private scooters.

It's frustrating the indicators (only on hire scheme ones?) are so low down; as a car driver at a roundabout, I've no idea which way the scooterist is going and they just tend to hang out in the middle of the road no matter which exit they're taking. I hang back but I can imagine other motorists being more impatient or just missing the indicator due to the positioning down by the wheels.

I was hit by a teenager on a scooter in the pedestrian section of a Tesco car park. I rounded a corner (on a pedestrian walkway) and then wallop. The lad on the scooter was about 15, tops. I ended up with massive bruises.
If it had been an elderly person hit they would have broken an arm or a hip.

I never see them where I live (or maybe I just don't notice them?) but when I do it terrifies me to see them going so fast in such precarious places with no helmet on!
In Spain they have to wear a high vis item, either a jacket or a fluorescent strap so you can see them at night in particular but also in the day. Seems sensible

I find them much harder to see and anticpate than cyclists because there's no body motion to catch the eye, and the acceleration is very sharp, gathering speed considerably quicker than a bike can. That's aside from usually being ridden (illegally) by youths in dark clothing with zero regard for any content in the Highway Code. Plus they're silent, so no auditory warning.
They're not safe on pavements or roads.

I've got a push scooter, but that goes up to a running pace and can be heard. I slow down to a walking pace around other people. I find it a useful alternative to a bike for short distances and easy to fold up to store rather than faffing with cycle racks and locks. Totally different league to the electric version.

I know the OP is not about these mobility scooters but do you really think that the 'vast majority' of mobility scooter users are overweight and just doing it for sheer laziness? And you question 'ableism' as a term? Do you think it does not exist? What would your post read like if you put 'racism' or 'homophobia' in inverted commas as if to jeer at the very possibility?
You have no idea what most people on scooters need them for. You are simply projecting your own prejudice and bias. Have you thought of the possibility that some scooter users are overweight because of their disability? Their medication and lack of exercise?

Sheesh. As if disabled people don't have enough to contend with.

I live in a small city with a scooter hire scheme and a really good system of bike lanes across the city and through the parks and they seem to work well here. They automatically slow to a crawl when you go out of the zone.

they are great fun too.

Saw three young boys I'd put at 13 or 14 years old playing on theirs metres away from a major roundabout using them to go up and down the subway passages at high speeds.
Also seen them used by young adults along our busy high street almost knocking into people.
I think they need proper regulation.

They're anything but great for the environment. Wherever their usage has been studied, it's turned out they're not replacing cars, but trips where people previously would have been either walking or taking the bus.p

My great aunt was often being chatted to by the local constabulary having been misbehaving on her mobility scooter in her latter years. She was previously of excellent character. Some OAPs just go off the rails...

They will kill a child on a pavement one day…. I always see them and think if a toddler or small child happened to be in the way it would be so dangerous. Too quick for pavements and they seem to always be on the pavements where I live.

Thank you for that.

I challenge anyone to stay thin on steroids and unable to exercise.

I've not seen them round here but the police have said in the local paper that if they see anyone one one they will confiscate it.

I think they should only be allowed in cycle lanes and only after you have taken a test. They also need to be insured and have some form of identification, it doesn't need to be a licence plate.

And I think cyclists should have similar rules.

They're banned from all of the Transport for London estate because there were two fires involving them. One exploded in a staff office in Stanmore after being handed in as lost property, the other exploded on a train in Putney (I think). The batteries are poor quality. Also some idiots rode them on station platforms and along corridors risking themselves and others.

I once saw a woman riding one in a busy part of South London with her child on it too, zipping past busy bus stops on the pavement with absolutely no consideration. Her son must only have been about six or seven.

I agree the streets are not set up for them, especially in built up urban areas that I'm familiar with. The law isn't set up for them either. In London they have negative connotations of being purchased by males involved in street crime.

Agree. I'm hoping that stand on electric scooters will be legalised soon with all that comes with that.

Most importantly standards of safe use. Stand on e-scooter riders should complete the Bikeability training at the very least (if legalised) and hopefully more purposely designed for their safe use.

I can't wait to use one (I have abroad). Brilliant and ideal form of transport in a world that has passed peak oil. Could be revolutionary for people (normally woman) who need to trip-chain (ie lots of different stop offs using different forms of transport).

IMHO stand on e-scooters should be used on the road, wearing a helmet, in the same space that bicycles use. Sometimes that will be a dedicated cycle lane, sometimes that will be using the cycling training I've mentioned above to position yourself safely.

Main thing, as with almost everything, is that the riders should be safe, sensible, responsible and respect other road users especially pedestrians (using the principles of the Highway Code, that with greater power comes greater responsibility)

It's the selfish idiots who are ruining it for the rest of us.

They should be banned, full stop. If people want to be "green" they should walk or cycle.

There's a scooter scheme in my city, but unfortunately they're used almost exclusively by dickheads. I live off a really busy main road and they cause chaos, loads are ridden by 2 teens going to school each morning, zipping in and out of traffic or belting down the pavement.

I saw a pair of teens almost run an elderly man's little dog over whilst it was being walked, dump the scooter on the pavement, totally obstructing it, and run off. I tried reporting it to the scooter company as I had the registration number, but gave up as they make it so difficult.

They're an absolute menace around my way, and the level of bellendery on them is going to cause a major accident one day.

I fully acknowledge that what I did was illegal however, I had one to get me to and from work.

It had a seat on it too and the police used to drive by me and not say anything so I’m guessing they may have thought it was an electric bike.

I would ride on the road like a bike would and I had lights on the front and back. I would also wear a high vis jacket, and at early mornings (I would start at 4am), I would have a head torch too.

The distance was around 3 miles there and 3 miles back. I couldn’t ride a bike. It hurt too much.

This scooter actually meant I could get to work!

Used properly, they could be a great alternative. Unfortunately, idiots buy them and then bad accidents happen

Completely agree - they are almost exclusively used by male idiots here. Wish the scheme would end although now there are enough privately owned ones.

I see by your username that we live in the same city! Wish bloody VOI would sod off out of it...