I’m super not a fan of these things either. I don’t mind people riding their own but people just ditch these things in the middle of the sidewalk constantly.
That and idiots weaving in traffic with them and flying around blind corners in them big nah thanks from me for rentals.
Paris did not ban e-scooters. What is banned is the renting of those. The problem wasn’t so much road/pedestrian safety, but moreso the curbside being overrun by scooters from various brands, piling on and annoying pedestrians.
I do wish there were a bigger push towards ebikes than escooters. I’ve ridden both, and I have pretty good balance, but the scooters felt incredibly dangerous the entire time. I used to support increasing the maximum speed limit on separated bikeways above the 25 that it currently is (and I still do support that for ebikes, up to at least 30—which would at least be more in line with America’s standard of 20 mph, and also more in line with my typical cruising speed on a pushbike), but seeing how unstable they are there’s no way I could condone that now.
The answer lies in well-connected networks of off-road paths so e-scooter users and cyclists do not tangle with cars on roads or pedestrians on footpaths.
I agree completely. If anything good is to come of the proliferation of escooters, it’ll be a better active transport network for all users.
I think our current rules around escooters are kind of ridiculous. The 10 km/h speed limit is absurdly low, and really does very little to increase pedestrian safety. What we need is better enforcement of dangerous riding that’s actually dangerous, not a speed limit on empty footpaths. And we need penalties towards the operators of shared escooter schemes if they don’t come up with a way to force their users to stop blocking footpaths and bike paths with where they park.
Vienna/Austria introduced mandatory licence plates for rental scooters a short while ago, so people blocking sidewalks and endangering others can be ticketed; no data on how it changed behaviour of the renters yet tho.
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