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Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

france24.com

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Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#71

Post by trog »

FpUser wrote: post #61
bombolo wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting hit by a bycicle at 20km/h can severely injure you.

So prohibit bikes then? I think government is more concerned about scooters competing with paid for transportation and hence reduction of revenue

> So prohibit bikes then? I think government is more concerned about scooters competing with paid for transportation and hence reduction of revenue

If you read the article you'll see this is based on a decision by the city's residents, 90% of whom voted against keeping them around.

The article seems to refer to two main things: "reckless and drunken driving, as well as clutter on pavements".

In my Australian city (I think we were the first to legalise them) they are wildly popular but I can attest to both of these things being a huge problem. I literally just walked to grab a snack and on the way back I stepped onto the road and was nearly wiped out by a scooter coming out of nowhere - illegally riding on the road.

I have a collection of photos on my phone of scooters being left randomly around the streets, including across the footpath and even on the road in some cases.

There is an entire class of people who use these that are just completely selfish fuckwits and do not stop to consider everyone else when they abandon them wherever they finish.

I am 100% pro electric scooter. They need to have infrastructure like cars, for parking and storage and riding. My state has just announced pretty harsh laws for riders that violate them but they are not being enforced enough yet.

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#72

Post by londons_explore »

twelve40 wrote: post #64
londons_explore wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The scooter companies should also add screens to the scooters, and use them for promotions. Eg. "Ride me to XYZ bar for free!". These promotions can be paid by businesses who want traffic, but also help the company redistribute the scooters back to gaps in coverage. The promotions should again be appless and authless. Friction is what prevents people using these things.

> Friction is what prevents people using these things No, in this case it's the outright city ban that prevents people from using them. > The scooter companies should Lime and dozens of others have been around for about 6 years by now, they are doing just fine* and they can probably figure out the promos if they manage not to get banned? * https://www.li.me/blog/lime-becomes-the-first-shared-electri...

But they're not doing just fine.... They have captured under 1% of the short journey market...

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#73

Post by Vespasian »

flak48 wrote: post #9

London meanwhile, continues to ban personally owned e-scooters - allowing only rental e-scooters!

Interesting. Germany regulated all scooters a few years back (with additional local rules for rentals).

That means some required safety features, mandatory insurance, minimum driver age and rules about what part of the road you can use.

It seems to work quite well in practice, however, I question the economic viability of the business model.

In my ~80k inhabitants, touristy city I see them rarely used and the few times I took one they seemed quite expensive.

Bird already left the again.

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#74

Post by pcthrowaway »

jeffbee wrote: post #30
publicmenace wrote: post #15

E-Scooters are a public menace. They're way to fast for the sidewalk, dangerous on the road, litter the sidewalks and cause people to trip, and are almost always ridden unsafely, with no safety equipment at all. Get these death traps off the streets.

I used to not care but the rental scooters really are a nuisance. Apparently deploying their kickstands is literally the hardest thing in life. The ones in motion don't bother me, and most of the people in Berkeley that ride e-scooters own theirs so they buy the lighter ones and carry them indoors, but the rental ones are much larger and heavier and their stands simply don't work.

I think the issue is that people walking by knock them over, moreso than the kickstands not working.

If you live in Berkeley (and many other cities), there's an added backdrop of anger at "big tech" that many non-tech workers have, so many people will kick or knock them over (I've seen this). I've also heard of people taking these (and bikeshare bikes) and throwing them in the ocean/lake/etc.

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#75

Post by stametseater »

londons_explore wrote: post #38

Rental scooters are often competing with walking. A 10 minute walk might perhaps be a 2 minute scoot. Great. But in my city, for every 1 scooter ride, you will see 100 pedestrians walk past. Ie. they have a sub-1% market share. And the scooters are idle >95% of the time. I suspect, the friction of needing an app is too high. The complex signup process needing a driving license is too complex. The pricing (multiple do…

The biggest friction is not the app, but rather needing to leave home carrying a bike helmet every day on the off chance that you want to use one of these scooters. I don't even ride a bike without a helmet and these scooters are much more dangerous than a bike (small wheels far below the rider's center of mass, inherently dangerous.) The market for helmet-less scooter rides anywhere, let alone on hard surfaced streets with traffic, is limited to people with death wishes.

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#77

Post by londons_explore »

stametseater wrote: post #75
londons_explore wrote: post #38

Rental scooters are often competing with walking. A 10 minute walk might perhaps be a 2 minute scoot. Great. But in my city, for every 1 scooter ride, you will see 100 pedestrians walk past. Ie. they have a sub-1% market share. And the scooters are idle >95% of the time. I suspect, the friction of needing an app is too high. The complex signup process needing a driving license is too complex. The pricing (multiple do…

The biggest friction is not the app, but rather needing to leave home carrying a bike helmet every day on the off chance that you want to use one of these scooters. I don't even ride a bike without a helmet and these scooters are much more dangerous than a bike (small wheels far below the rider's center of mass, inherently dangerous.) The market for helmet-less scooter rides anywhere, let alone on hard surfaced stree…

In some countries, the scooters come with helmets in a lockable box on the back.

Obviously there is now the 'ewe' factor of putting on a helmet covered with someone elses hair lice...

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#79

Post by pcthrowaway »

yladiz wrote: post #48
pm90 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's just not possible to get around modern American cities without cars. Well but it is. Restricting/Eliminating cars in city centers especially would do wonders to promote them as places that people want to live in.

Too many American city centers aren’t really set up for non-car usage, so even if cars went away, people would need to walk pretty big distances to get to where they’re going. Modern American cities need to be fundamentally redesigned to support a car free or reduced system.

I realize you're talking about the current feasability of non-car transportation, which it sounds like we all agree leaves something to be desired.

Banning new modes of transportation is really just going to reinforce the existing car-centric design of cities though.

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