Let's talk about e scooters

[mstone]

Maybe just make the trails better instead of handwringing about 15mph e-scooters and e-skateboards?

LOL, I'm looking for things I can do in the years before I'm dead and buried...

[sjclaeys]

Buzzfeed piece on e-scooter injuries: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article...am=top-stories

[TwoWheelsDC]

Buzzfeed piece on e-scooter injuries: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article...am=top-stories

37000+ people died in cars in 2016.

[arlrider]

37000+ people died in cars in 2016.

An absolute figure just begging to be normalized by a population size...would not surprise me if the scooters were in fact more dangerous per mile or hour of use. Of course, they're also early in the adoption curve and there has been little policy work directed at them, so it would be expected that these would be the subject of relatively more incidents than a more mature technology with established policy and infrastructure.

[lordofthemark]

Scooters, much like bikes, can help address issues of road congestion, criteria emissions, carbon emissions. The user may not burn many calories while riding them (less than on an ebike, even?) but if it enables a car free or car lite lifestyle, likely improves health outcomes enough to more than offset any dangers from accidents. Not to mention the mental health benefits of being outside. All in all, a good thing.

As someone particularly concerned with improving utilization of our seg infra, and broadening the constituency for it, I welcome them to share MUPs and bike lanes with us. I also note that all the arguments against allowing ebikes on the trails, apply more weakly or not at all to e scooters.

[creadinger]

An absolute figure just begging to be normalized by a population size...would not surprise me if the scooters were in fact more dangerous per mile or hour of use. Of course, they're also early in the adoption curve and there has been little policy work directed at them, so it would be expected that these would be the subject of relatively more incidents than a more mature technology with established policy and infrastructure.

They also may already surpass bicycles with regard to embarrassingly bad "journalism".... like this story from Cleveland.com. https://www.cleveland.com/metro/inde...c_scooter.html

You wouldn't know it from the headline, but the driver of the car was 19 and drunk! And it ends with this brilliant bit - "The scooters have been known to cause injuries to their riders in 32 other American cities where they've appeared over the past year."

Yeah! Injuries tend to happen when you get drunk and mow people down in your cars!

[sjclaeys]

37000+ people died in cars in 2016.

I'm not really seeing the purpose of the reply. Just saw the article cited in the Axios daily email and shared it without comment one way or another. arlrider makes a good point about normalizing by population size though.

[lordofthemark]

I'm not really seeing the purpose of the reply. Just saw the article cited in the Axios daily email and shared it without comment one way or another. arlrider makes a good point about normalizing by population size though.

Axios. Buzzfeed. We have *insert scottish accent* STANDARDS.

[PeteD]

LA Times vs Buzzfeed?

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/l...809-story.html

[TwoWheelsDC]

I'm not really seeing the purpose of the reply. Just saw the article cited in the Axios daily email and shared it without comment one way or another. arlrider makes a good point about normalizing by population size though.

It wasn’t meant as a criticism of you. It’s the sensationalist reporting on some pretty minor injuries from scooters while no one bats an eye at the carnage caused by cars.

On the issue of normalizing the stats, I just don’t buy it. Maybe if you just count all injuries as the same, but people aren’t getting crushed and maimed by scooters, and scooters don’t crash through houses and storefronts on a daily basis. I’d wager that, even accounting for population and miles traveled, the level of economic loss caused by car crashes far outweighs that caused by injuries from all other modes combined...especially once you factor in externalities like pollution.