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I rode all the e-scooters, and most of them are awful except two

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Re: I rode all the e-scooters, and most of them are awful except two

#131

Post by nkaviani »

diehunde wrote: post #79

Any recommendations on a good scooter to buy?

I own a Glion Dolly (https://glion-scooter.com/dolly/) and my girlfriend has a Segway ES2.

I would advocate for rubber tires despite the discomfort. the moment you get a flat tire is pretty much the end of your scooter's lifetime as it is very difficult to fix it.

I like Glion for its design and ease of carrying, but Segway wins in every other aspect. Depends on your budget. If you are willing to spend a grand or more then Mercane WideWheel probably tops the market right now.

Re: I rode all the e-scooters, and most of them are awful except two

#132

Post by lightbritefight »

masklinn wrote: post #80
will_brown wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Without insurance, you are putting your financial life in jeopardy. Think about it! In addition to riders, if the scooter is a rental, I think there is a pretty solid claim to be made against the tech companies who scatter these scooters throughout cities (often times illegally) and allow them to be rented by anyone (with no training, no education of rules of the road, no offering of helmets, I’m not sure these thin…

> I think there is a pretty solid claim to be made against the tech companies who scatter these scooters throughout cities (often times illegally) I don't know about that, the device itself is not illegal, only its use on public way. And technically ignorance of the law is not a valid excuse.

The law is concerned with both actions and their intent. While placing the scooters on the street may not be illegal, the entire reason for doing so is for people to ride them. Its pretty clear intent to incite people to break the law for profit.

That very much makes the company involved with what happens when people do just that.

Re: I rode all the e-scooters, and most of them are awful except two

#133

Post by HillaryBriss »

danShumway wrote: post #111
HillaryBriss wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with your thought process. I myself would never do that and I definitely don't endorse it. OTOH, if we apply this principle to the scooter riding population, we see that the people who ride these vehicles on sidewalks are hurting random gals/guys too. These riders made a conscious choice to defy the vehicle code -- and for what? Having some fun? Failure to plan their route to include a little more time? They…

I don't think there is an OTOH with this one. If we apply this principle to the scooter riding population, we have no idea whether the person who's brake lines were just cut is going to be riding on the sidewalk in the first place. Heck, even in the case that the next person to use the scooter does ride on the sidewalk, cutting their brake lines greatly increases the risk to the ordinary pedestrians around them -- wh…

So, it comes down to intent. But we don't actually know what the intent of the brake line cutter was. Imagine, say, that it was a disgruntled, out-of-work taxi driver who simply wanted to damage the competition. He didn't want to physically harm anyone. He simply chose a terrible way to go about it. His intent was simply to reinvigorate his way of making a living in order to put food on the table.

Re: I rode all the e-scooters, and most of them are awful except two

#134

Post by justaguyhere »

asdff wrote: post #116
FussyZeus wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know people give Americans shit for opposing anything 'public' but it's not a sentiment out of nowhere. Everything made for public use is abused and turned to complete shit. Not sure if it's a cultural thing or what.

American apathy is a real thing. People used to love public works and public institutions, then the funds supporting these public good endeavors were slowly slashed and looted in the second half of the 20th century, leading to a lack of maintenance and improvement all while the population was growing. People look at a destroyed public bathroom and blame society, smirk at how shitty and nonfunctional the government is…

I don't think this apathy is just unique to Americans. I feel like today's population in general (across the world) is more tolerating and expects less from their governments and leaders compared to say 60-70 years ago. We don't see protests like the old days. I don't know the reason - maybe student debt (people are too stressed out about paying back their loans etc that they don't have time for anything else), stagnant wages (people have to do multiple jobs to make ends meet), maybe because cops have much easier/powerful ways of tracking anyone they want, I dunno.

Re: I rode all the e-scooters, and most of them are awful except two

#135

Post by GaryNumanVevo »

mmcwilliams wrote: post #93
docdeek wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Story here in Lyon, France, yesterday about a less-dangerous attack on the electric scooters: instead of cutting the brake cables, vandals are painting over the QR code instead. No QR code to scan means no useable scooter. Link in French: https://www.leprogres.fr/rhone-69/2019/06/10/a-lyon-les-trot...

To be fair, QR codes are a fairly fragile technology for something like that. If instead of destroying them, someone replaced the codes with a malicious link the outcome could be worse.

Great idea! I'll go print some QR stickers tonight

Re: I rode all the e-scooters, and most of them are awful except two

#136

Post by FussyZeus »

justaguyhere wrote: post #134
asdff wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American apathy is a real thing. People used to love public works and public institutions, then the funds supporting these public good endeavors were slowly slashed and looted in the second half of the 20th century, leading to a lack of maintenance and improvement all while the population was growing. People look at a destroyed public bathroom and blame society, smirk at how shitty and nonfunctional the government is…

I don't think this apathy is just unique to Americans. I feel like today's population in general (across the world) is more tolerating and expects less from their governments and leaders compared to say 60-70 years ago. We don't see protests like the old days. I don't know the reason - maybe student debt (people are too stressed out about paying back their loans etc that they don't have time for anything else), stagn…

I can't speak for elsewhere, but here in America corporate news media has been spreading anti-Government propaganda for literally decades, backed up by the Republicans slowly gutting every Government program or system and making their provided services suffer. Once things get bad enough, they subcontract the service to a private company. The company does things just as poorly as the Government did, but they keep it consistently bad which is framed as an improvement as opposed to slow degradation.

A great example of this was when the American Healthcare Act was being passed, and Republican lawmakers spent a ton of time gutting the requirements for the insurers and cutting Government subsidies to those insurers to offset their costs, only so they could then complain about the onerous and overbearing requirements (the ones that remained, anyway) and blame the Government for not being willing to help offset the costs (the money which they refused to grant for such purpose).

Meanwhile we've spent trillions on a plane none of our armed forces asked for that hasn't flown a single mission. But no, the single mom buying food on EBT coupons is what's crippling us.

Re: I rode all the e-scooters, and most of them are awful except two

#137

Post by underhill »

HillaryBriss wrote: post #99
underhill wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I take both Jump e-bikes as well as various scooters on the regular. Honestly I prefer Jump Bikes - it's almost always cheaper and faster and safer. I definitely feel more "seen" by cars as well. That being said, with a scooter you aren't pedaling at all . Even on an e-assist bike you're still getting the adrenaline pumping and sorta sweaty. And a lot of people are afraid of riding bikes in traffic, so while even tho…

> And a lot of people are afraid of riding bikes in traffic, so while even though bikes are actually much safer, there's a lower mental barrier to entry with scooters. In LA it's not legal to ride scooters on the sidewalk, so, in theory, people should fear riding scooters too because they're supposed to ride scooters in traffic -- just like the bikes. Of course, in practice, almost everyone rides everything on the si…

Oh yeah - I've seen plenty of not-confident-bikers hop on scooters and ride them in the street.

Even though riding a scooter in the street is often fairly terrifying, I feel like there's some kind of easy mental jump that has people getting on without nearly as much reservation as they would have hopping on a bike.

Re: I rode all the e-scooters, and most of them are awful except two

#138

Post by closeparen »

justaguyhere wrote: post #134
asdff wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American apathy is a real thing. People used to love public works and public institutions, then the funds supporting these public good endeavors were slowly slashed and looted in the second half of the 20th century, leading to a lack of maintenance and improvement all while the population was growing. People look at a destroyed public bathroom and blame society, smirk at how shitty and nonfunctional the government is…

I don't think this apathy is just unique to Americans. I feel like today's population in general (across the world) is more tolerating and expects less from their governments and leaders compared to say 60-70 years ago. We don't see protests like the old days. I don't know the reason - maybe student debt (people are too stressed out about paying back their loans etc that they don't have time for anything else), stagn…

People are as energetic as ever about controversial, tribe-splitting issues, possibly more. We are not going to let power fall into the hands of our blood enemies just because our party’s candidate messed up the trains. He knows this, so there is no reason for him to spend political capital on them, so they will continue to deteriorate.

Re: I rode all the e-scooters, and most of them are awful except two

#139

Post by ptaipale »

roel_v wrote: post #82
ptaipale wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand that rules for bike paths depend on local jurisdiction, but why wouldn't an e-scooter fit a bike path in Venice, CA? Over here (Finland, like all of Europe) we have roads, we have bike paths, and we have pedestrian pavements. E-scooters are always good for bike paths, and if they move faster than 15 km/h, they are not to be ridden in pedestrian areas, only bike paths, even if they are not exactly bikes.…

"Over here (Finland, like all of Europe) we have roads, we have bike paths, and we have pedestrian pavements. E-scooters are always good for bike paths, " These escooters aren't even legal to use at all in any place that is public in the Netherlands, let alone that it would be decided where they should ride.

Ah, right: cycle paths are generally like this everywhere, but e-scooters going on them not necessarily. They're all over cities in Finland, Sweden and Denmark, though, and I've also seen them in Berlin.

Re: I rode all the e-scooters, and most of them are awful except two

#140

Post by smileysteve »

smileysteve wrote: post #124
md2be wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Los Angeles, Motorized vehicles are not permitted on sidewalks and paths. As a rider, you are liable for all personal injuries that result from your riding. Without insurance, you are putting your financial life in jeopardy. Think about it!

> As a rider, you are liable for all personal injuries that result from your riding. As a walker, you're liable for all personal injuries that result from your walking As a dog owner, you're liable for all personal injuries that result from your dog. > Without insurance, you are putting your financial life in jeopardy. Most drivers are underinsured if they send a few people to the hospital. On a scooter though, cover…

Let me restate my point;

Very few people have bicycle liability insurance, yet scooter liability insurance is a concern?

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