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

jalopnik.com

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

#141

Post by rstuart4133 »

bamboo_7 wrote: post #32
kcorbitt wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I regularly ride my e-bike in SF but have also dabbled with the rental scooters. I have a hard time understanding the scooters' popularity, compared to a rentable e-bike like the Jump or Lime bikes. In my experience e-bikes have the advantage in top speed, stability, comfort and safety. Other than taking up marginally more space when parked, I can't think of any downsides. This matches the article author's conclusion…

Barrier of entry. Folks like me that haven't ridden a bike since they were a kid are scared as hell of riding around traffic. Scooters are much more approachable.

Looks can be deceiving.

I ride a push bike, and had an electric one for a while. I've had my fair share of accidents. The last one was when the local council put in a drain at the bottom of a hill - and then didn't bother to place a proper road mix over it before sealing it with asphalt. Trucks then turned into something that looked more like corrugated iron with 300mm corrugations, which being at the bottom of a hill I hit at about 70km/hour. I lost a lot of skin (I pitched over the handle bars and slid along the bitumen) - but walked away.

That would not have been the outcome had I been on a e-scooter. I've tried an e-scooter when on holidays, found myself effortlessly doing doing 30km/hr, my first thought was "gee this is dangerous". The wheels are tiny, so a small obstacle is going to bring you undone. Your position is all wrong - standing on the thing you are a pole waiting to be vaulted through the air and slammed head first into the road, or possibly skewered by the handle bars on the way down. (Push bikes tend to send you over flying the handle bars which sounds bad but you don't hit the road - you slide along it.)

I'm not at all surprised to see serious accident and death rates and took a sudden surge upwards with the introduction powered scooters. They are inherently far less safe than bikes, yet as you say appear attractive and safe to inexperienced riders. It's a recipe for disaster.

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

#142

Post by HillaryBriss »

masklinn wrote: post #104
HillaryBriss wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, but, the practical reality in LA is that the police very rarely ticket people for riding these vehicles on the sidewalk. The insurance angle you mention is interesting, but let me ask the question: practically speaking, how would any pedestrian who is injured by a scooter rider in LA actually hold the scooter driver financially responsible? What is the mechanism? Will police actually even respond to a call f…

> how would any pedestrian who is injured by a scooter rider in LA actually hold the scooter driver financially responsible? What is the mechanism? Same way they would if they were injured by a car, or by someone punching them in the face.

> Same way they would if they were injured by a car

oh. interesting. do these scooters have something like a license plate that one could use to trace back to the rider? do scooter companies service requests from random injured pedestrians for info about the rider of a particular scooter? does the DMV have a database of these vehicles? will the police help a pedestrian who tells them she was hit by a scooter and the rider just took off? if so, how do they find the rider? I mean, how does all that work?

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

#143

Post by brokenmachine »

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…

It's not only America, it's all around the world.

Because income inequality has exploded, the middle class is now nonexistent.

So there are now only the rich who don't have to deal with the problems of the poor, and the poor who are both too busy struggling to survive and too poor to lobby to enact change.

Eventually the guillotines will arrive but for now it's just bad public toilets.

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

#144

Post by brokenmachine »

AJ007 wrote: post #8

The legal liability for these companies must be huge. I’ve seen toddlers on these things with their parents, more than once. Kids very often.

They probably have it in their fine print that you are not allowed passengers. They'd be stupid not to really.

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

#145

Post by baud147258 »

yardie wrote: post #25
baud147258 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope you weren't on the sidewalk at this speed

They have true dedicated bike lanes in Paris. Taken from the car lanes to reduce most streets to 2 lanes. The only things allowed on the sidewalks are people, pets, prams, and cafe tables and chairs.

Funny that you talk about bike lanes: on my way to work I cross a bridge, with the sidewalk on one side being a bike lane, I usually walk on the other side, since it's closer to the tram station I'm going to; each time I'll have to avoid bikes and e-scooters that don't want to go to the other side and instead choose to swerve among the many pedestrians that cross that bridge

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

#147

Post by Angostura »

jfk13 wrote: post #85
Angostura wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would generally be in favour of restrictions that stopped cars driving on cycle lanes.

Until there's a broken-down vehicle blocking the road, and the only way around it involves encroaching on the cycle lane (carefully!) ... but your hi-tech geofenced car forbids that, so you're stuck. Or you attempt to move out of the way of an oncoming emergency vehicle, as it's barrelling down the centre of the road to reach a dying patient ... but it needs an extra couple of feet of space that you can only give it…

At which point, letting the vehicle move at 3Mph on the cycle lane is perfectly solution (as one of these scooters companies does).

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

#148

Post by ezoe »

monort wrote: post #146
ezoe wrote: post #129

I really want a high-quality non-e kick scooter. After the trend passed out, there aren't many high quality kick scooters manufactured.

Oxelo Town 9 EF V2. It's a little too heavy though.

It looks like it's not using pneumatic tires. and it's rather difficult to purchase from Japan for no official dealers in Japan.

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

#149

Post by neverminder »

So he tested a bunch of low end scooters and concluded that all of them suck. otherwise the sky is still blue. Some people may not realize that all of the rental companies only stock cheap low end scooters. In general those scooters are slow, have shitty brakes, suspensions, tires, etc. The scooter that I have has large deck, pneumatic tires, excellent suspension, dual hydraulic disc brakes and can go up to 65 km/h.

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

#150

Post by alchemism »

emerongi wrote: post #87
alchemism wrote: post #54

Ive been using an ‘adult’ push scooter for five years in an urban environment. This year I encountered the electric rentals for the first time, and bought a Xiaomi m365 (aka the Bird scooter). I also have a normal bike. They serve different purposes. Either version of a scooter is safer. I’ve been in a few situations where I’ve simply stepped off the plank and become an instant pedestrian, to avoid cars which would h…

Is the m365 good? I was thinking about getting one a few days ago. I usually cycle, but a scooter would be nice for smaller distances around the city.

The other two opinions are in line with my impression: it is the best starter scooter in its class based on overall value. It costs substantially more to have one that will have superior performance without trade-offs.

I did start seeing Facebook ads after my purchase, for a Ninebot prototype model on indiegogo for ~$600 which supposedly has a 40-mile range, all other things being equal. That one might be a better value if it does have superior power storage, since range is the most limiting factor of them in general.

But I am quite pleased with the m365. It has a clean minimal appearance for the street, especially compared to the rentals if they are in your city. I keep it clean enough to carry into buildings with me rather than lock it out on the street, and no one has minded it yet. It feels a bit more like an appliance than a vehicle -- to echo other responses, I would worry about it getting very wet.

I don't bring it on mass transit (folded) during rush hour, but otherwise I do, and find them to be complimentary. It makes 1-2 mile distances as casually easy as a walk to the next block, generally speaking.

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