Rant about scooters!

[singlemama91]

To be pissed off at all of the people (adults and kids) that are iresponsible and just dangerous with the electric scooters!

This is my first thread on Mumsnet so please be nice but I just needed to get this off my chest. They drive them dangerously on pavements and park them so that if you have a pushchair you have to go on to the road to get around them.

They should ban them all. I thought it was just a tempory thing but it seems like there are more everyday! Its not just kids either but so called responsible adults as well. Although i have definitely noticed that it is majority men that use them and not women. Maybe we are more sensible. Does anyone else think this?

I cannot see how they provide a eco alternative to the car. possibly for very short journeys but for most commutes surely impractical (my commute is 80 miles on 3 motorways. If I had to go via A roads it would take around 3 hours) no good for shopping trips or anything involving luggage, no good if you got a baby or other passengers…not to mention the impracticalities of dealing with the British weather and dark nights, early mornings - do they have lights?

Very recently, and in the next street over, there was a horrific accident involving a young man on one of these scooters. At best, he will be in recovery for some time and possibly physically scarred for life. At worst, if he survived, he could have permanent brain damage. They are vehicles and need to be treated as such.

@JenniferAllisonPhillipaSue - nobody is tarring all riders with the same brush. There’s no reason why scooters can’t be used responsibly and I’m sure many people do, but there is a noticeably growing problem with dangerous and/or antisocial use.

I think most people would put riding on the pavement into that category too. As someone who was knocked down by a bmx rider on a similar-sounding wide pavement with few pedestrians, I’m not keen on cyclists and others decidIng to take to the pavement as it suits them. It’s not meant for bikes and scooters and in that instance pedestrians are the vulnerable party who get no say in you taking that risk.

The police keep putting up posts saying they’re illegal unless on private ground but no one pays attention or gets reprimanded

Unfortunately this was always going to happen, just as it has with cycling on pavements. It all sounds a terribly good idea in theory and councils have their usual moral wank over "green potential", but once the genie's out of the box those in charge of enforcement simply don't want to know

I hardly ever suggest an actual ban on whatever-it-is, but for these I make an exception because the situation's only going to get worse

It’s definitely not just men 🤨 though mostly teens round here. I hate them, my kids school had to send out a warning to parents as there was so many picking up their kids on them then driving off with the kid balancing on the front with no helmet on! School asked parents not to pick their kids up on them.

Anyone saying they are an alternative to cars they are wrong. How can I take my two young DC on a trip out with an electric scooter? What if I want to go food shopping or even just carry a couple of bags or travel more than a few miles. I have to use a car.

As one PP said, the scooters are just an added annoyance that are illegal. I know they have areas where there is a legal trial but this just encourages more people to use them illegally. What after the trial if they decide its not a good idea. Everyone that bought them isnt going to just stop using them. They are a bad idea full stop.

Of course they are an alternative! Not for all uses of a car, but for many of them.

@picklemewalnuts

Of course they are an alternative! Not for all uses of a car, but for many of them.

I actually disagree. There are next to no options where I use a car that I could switch to a scooter. Plus once I’ve bought a car, paid for MOT, insurance etc I might as well use it. I certainly wouldn’t be buying something else I could use maybe 1% of the time if I was lucky.

@ClawedButler

Very recently, and in the next street over, there was a horrific accident involving a young man on one of these scooters. At best, he will be in recovery for some time and possibly physically scarred for life. At worst, if he survived, he could have permanent brain damage. They are vehicles and need to be treated as such.

We had a young lad recently whizz in front of a taxi. Ended up with his leg sheared off by the taxi. His mates thought they were doing him a favour by grabbing the remains of the scooter and hiding it.

if you want an environmental alternative I would suggest that we improve public transport & have it nationalised or not for profit
Improving the public network timetable & make it reasonably priced
I think more goods should be transported by rail with cluster networks for short distances by road ie improve the rail network not expensive speedier one just one that connect properly - we could have more goods moved at night time (sorry if you live near railway lines!) & perhaps more tunnels? The thing about rail is that they can have more carriages perhaps with container type loading like ships?

I'm not into them myself but I think they're great. New innovative forms of transport are quite literally the way forward, embrace change rather than resist it

Cars are way more annoying.

I don't mind them really, but they are in the city centre where I work and they are just left all over the place, half the time without helmets.

There was one left by the entrance to our office the other day and I had no idea if someone had left it there with the intention of using it again or just decided they didn't want to use it anymore. Quite often people just ditch them in stupid places making them an annoying obstacle for people and bikes.

I live in city where you can rent them off the street. They obviously need to be used responsibly but don't cause huge issues.
They cut down on car traffic.

They cut down on car traffic in our area with single people doing shortish trips, which being in city are a common thing.

But @Allywill it's not those uses of the car that scooters replace! As you say, they can't!

They do replace 'taking your teen or young adult to a club' in the car, and many many other car journeys that can be done by a single person on a scooter. No one is saying all car journeys should be done on a scooter, just that many scooter journeys would otherwise be done in a car.

I cannot see how they provide a eco alternative to the car. possibly for very short journeys but for most commutes surely impractical

publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmtrans/1487/148705.htm

no not impractical as most journeys - 80% are under 10 miles and the majority are under 5 miles, which is easily doable instead of the majority of single occupancy vehicle trips

AllyWill - just because it might never be an alternative for you doesn't mean it can't be for other people.
A scooter wouldn't be useful to me where I live - if I wasn't using the car then foot or bike would be fine. If I lived somewhere with multi use paths I can imagine it might be very handy for popping out on.

Picking my daughter rip from childminder I have a couple of times see a young child on one. His head barely comes over handlebars/ there is no way he is safe as he zooms up the road (in the road as it's a group of cul de sacs)

Its the age old issue of legislation failing to keep up with technology. These contraptions don't fit nicely into existing categories as small, lightweight, reliable, powerful and efficient power systems simply didn't exist when vehicle categories were invented.

As for people being dangerous or simply twats on them, well in some areas you used to see these same people being dangerous/twats on skateboards or bmx's or bikes etc, they simply moved to the latest toy.
People are also scared of new things they dont fully understand.

If you want to see dangerous acts by sensible people on legal things hang about a cycle path and wait of a slightly elderly person who has been put on a perfectly legal electric bike and pointed in a rough direction to go - they'll sit there virtually frozen and will divert their course for nobody - i've seen people forced off paths and have accidents due to these geriatric but legal lycra louts.

E-bike also had issues with unrestricted/overpowered/etc models before legislation caught up and provided a legal category for them (25kmh, 25watt max and pedal assist only - not throttled), scooters are still at that stage that bikes wee at 10 years ago.

They clearly have their place otherwise there wouldn't be any business potential in the hire schemes.
If you want people not to take their car for short journeys e-scooters might well be answer.