321–330 of 339 posts
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The fact that you're suggesting insurance and registration are to be expected for any class of vehicle short of a moped is completely foreign to me.
I dunno, we have voluntary insurance for kitesurfing. Why not? Insurance companies will do it pretty cheap.
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The fact that you're suggesting insurance and registration are to be expected for any class of vehicle short of a moped is completely foreign to me.
Yup, it all needs insuring here - even the 35cc autocycle I used to have needed it - but it only needed a cheap daylight mot (no lights, indicators or speedo) and tax was £15 insurance was just £50 at the time. Being hit by a moped could easily cause life changing injuries, so I'm pleased to see them insured.
There is already voluntary insurance for (e) cycling here. Making it mandatory for some makes no sense.
Ebike is not a moped. Mopeds can go much faster than the proposed limit of 25mph.
Mandatory insurance is a band aid.
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The Xootr in particular glides really really well. If you're used to the cheapo Razor scooters, it's worlds apart, even from the larger-wheeled Razor A5. The relative speed depends on the terrain. If you're on concrete sidewalks, like I am, I'd say it's 3x faster. If you're on asphalt, then 4x is reasonable. Downhill, 5x easily.
Is a Xootr really worth so much money? I just checked because I like the idea and they're close to 300€ here.
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I’ve been thinking about bike vs scooter a lot lately too. Austin is overrun with scooters and I used them for a little while before finding the electric Uber Jump bikes. They seem superior to scooters in every way in Austin, which makes the 20:1 ratio of scooters to bikes a bit baffling. But I can see your point in SF where I use to walk 5 blocks from my apartment to the muni train and then another five blocks from…
We have the Jump e-bikes here in Atlanta, and I also prefer them to scooters. There are a lot of old roads and sidewalks with cracks that make riding a scooter can be dangerous. With the small wheels, you really have to pay attention to the road ahead of you. Unfortunately, I received an email earlier this month that Jump is pulling all the e-bikes from the city. I wonder if operating costs or cost fo replacement mak…
I've moved jobs and am out in the burbs, but plan on moving back pretty soon.
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Your anecdotes support the idea that it's hard for multiple modes of transportation with different travel speeds to coexist in the same space. When I cycle, I try to never ride on a sidewalk, because it's unpleasant both for me as a rider and for pedestrians. In a perfect world, we would have separate infrastructure for pedestrians, cyclists/scooters, and cars -- but our cities aren't laid out that way. Instead, most…
> Where should the cyclists in your anecdote be riding? The street. If they feel the danger is too great, then you know what? They have the choice to walk or take the bus or a car. The choice to break the law and endanger my life is always a bad one. But it is a choice. They are trading their safety for mine, when they choose to ride on the sidewalk.
Whether they are breaking the law is rather irrelevant, unless you think the problem would be solved by making riding bikes on the sidewalk legal (which you obviously don't). You can't say "the law shouldn't be changed because that would be bad" and then "it's bad to do it because it is illegal". That's circular logic.
Also, not everywhere is riding on a sidewalk illegal (example found with a quick google: "The City of Los Angeles permits riding bicycles on sidewalks, even in business districts, as long as cyclists do so with regard for the safety of pedestrians and property").
You gave an example of kids rushing out of a store. But if bikes/scooters/etc are regularly on sidewalks, wouldn't they then be taught to be careful? I mean, kids have to intermix with cars in parking lots (far more likely to cause death or serious injury than getting hit by a bike), and they are taught appropriate safety.
Who knows, maybe a kid getting a painful scrape or bruise by running into a bike will save their life later by making them more attentive next time, so they don't get run over by a bus. If you are going to list anecdotes (observed or imagined), you should consider all such possibilities.
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We have the Jump e-bikes here in Atlanta, and I also prefer them to scooters. There are a lot of old roads and sidewalks with cracks that make riding a scooter can be dangerous. With the small wheels, you really have to pay attention to the road ahead of you. Unfortunately, I received an email earlier this month that Jump is pulling all the e-bikes from the city. I wonder if operating costs or cost fo replacement mak…
Get off the sidewalk. https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/starting-today-you-...
I speak as someone who bikes and walks, and is as annoyed as everyone else by scooters -- they still have a right to personal safety.
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Get off the sidewalk. https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/starting-today-you-...
Ugh. Build dedicated lanes, then, Atlanta. A scooter-pedestrian collision isn't pleasant, but it has a far, far better outcome for the pedestrian than a car-scooter collision does for the scooter. I speak as someone who bikes and walks, and is as annoyed as everyone else by scooters -- they still have a right to personal safety.
We have bike lines in Chicago, but yet they still act like entitled assholes.
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> Where should the cyclists in your anecdote be riding? The street. If they feel the danger is too great, then you know what? They have the choice to walk or take the bus or a car. The choice to break the law and endanger my life is always a bad one. But it is a choice. They are trading their safety for mine, when they choose to ride on the sidewalk.
This is extremely black and white thinking. You are trading your safety for theirs when you insist that no one but pedestrians be in certain places. Whether they are breaking the law is rather irrelevant, unless you think the problem would be solved by making riding bikes on the sidewalk legal (which you obviously don't). You can't say "the law shouldn't be changed because that would be bad" and then "it's bad to do…
In the Netherlands, they know bikes and pedestrians don't mix, so they make separate paths. They are the gold standard for cyclist and pedestrian safety.
I, as a pedestrian, am an advocate for my safety. I walk 4 miles per day on the sidewalk and I can tell you since the scooters arrived, my safety is greatly at risk. With the number of hours I put in on sidewalks, it's only a matter of time before I get knocked down. I've had a bunch of very close calls already.
Will it be minor? Will I die due to a head injury? Don't know. The stakes are that high, though.
Everything you wrote is just avoiding the main issue.
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If the speed is the same, and the places traveled are the same, and the likelihood of an accident is the same... Can you imagine going to a car dealership, and coming across a car with 10x the stopping distance and a center of mass twice as high as a Civic and the salesman telling you "it's just as safe so long as you're traveling the same speed and same places"? Would you buy that claim for a second? I've avoided nu…
Most people really can't run much over 7-10 mph. A bike and a skateboard both easily go faster than this. Eject and run is not really an option unless you want to face plant or do a skilled tuck and roll. This gets more true the further you are from sprinting on a regular basis. And really unless you have practice you're not going to match speeds with the ground anyway