Let's put the blame on the people who get hit by cars again!
The best fix would be protected lanes (not just paint on a tiny strip of the road), but since they won't bother, wear protective gear and keep your head on a swivel when you're out there!
this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2024
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micromobility - Ebikes, scooters, longboards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility
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Ebikes, bicycles, scooters, skateboards, longboards, eboards, motorcycles, skates, unicycles: Whatever floats your goat, this is all things micromobility!
"Transportation using lightweight vehicles such as bicycles or scooters, especially electric ones that may be borrowed as part of a self-service rental program in which people rent vehicles for short-term use within a town or city.
micromobility is seen as a potential solution to moving people more efficiently around cities"
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You would think that but I live in a city with protected bike lanes. The scooter riders are dinguses usually. They ride without helmets. They ride way faster than the bikers do which means they're constantly dipping in and out of the lanes trying to pass people. Also they have tiny little wheels with zero contact so when they need to brake in an emergency they can't stop properly. All that put together is asking for an injury.
Best fix is banning large fossil fuel vehicles in heavily populated areas.
Large vehicles period if you ask me, EVs are much heavier than ICE vehicles and can accelerate much faster.
There are a lot of legitimate use cases for large vehicles in urban areas like construction, mass transit, and shipping.
I count four reasons:
- construction and repairs
- mass transit
- delivery of foods and goods
- emergency services and police.
but a lot of deliveries and repairs can be managed by cargo bike.
Those could be special use cases driven by properly trained people with a CDL that get a pass or we could find new ways to do things, but there are a shitload of absolutely massive personal vehicles being driven around by people who don't know wtf they're doing and people are dying as a direct result.
Yeah agreed
Not in the budget. The best we can offer is to clutch at our pearls a little harder and ban, ban, ban.
The Netherlands here - even with protected car lanes, e-scooters are forbidden on the roads. Previous experiences from other cities like París seem to reinforce the government’s position.
Edit: Maybe the argument would be better served by separating these two issues: With the increase in bike transit, especially as a partial remedy for ecological purposes, they deserve to have their own lanes (and legal priority in transit - something we have here) at the expense of more-polluting vehicles. Separately, e-scooters can travel in those separate lanes, but they require helmets at least (though this opens the door to having ebike users wear helmets, which isn’t a bad idea).
Scooter riders definitely seem to be often less safety conscious than cyclists in my experience. Probably 70% of cyclists in my area wear a helmet and 10% at most of scooter riders. I've also seen stuff like people riding on sidewalks and up to 3 people on a single scooter.
Some points to think about…
Helmets are super rare in the Netherlands or Denmark, and they have much lower accident rates than the US, while having much higher use of bikes.
People ride in sidewalks because they are forced onto streets or roads and don’t feel safe.
I’ve seen many bikes with two or three people as well, lol.
People getting in accidents is much more about the lack of infrastructure.
Helmets are super rare in the Netherlands or Denmark, and they have much lower accident rates than the US, while having much higher use of bikes.
Lower than the US doesn't mean they are doing something right. The Netherlands still have far too many head injuries, and there have been groups of doctors pleading for helmet use, since these injuries can be prevented or mitigated. For example.
It's also important to note that the Netherlands have had an increase in cycling injuries over the last five years, mostly because of e-bikes. They really should be wearing helmets, no matter how perfect they believe their cycling infrastructure is - many of these crashes don't involve a motor vehicle (60%+).
People getting in accidents is much more about the lack of infrastructure.
And lack of critical mass. Biking in my college town always felt pretty safe... except on days that brought lots of outsiders to town. Those people don't know how to share the road with non-cars. Experience of regularly driving around areas with bikes means you get used to thinking about their existence and don't do things like suddenly turn right directly without even turning on a turning signal in front of a cyclist at the bottom of a hill.
These are all very valid points, but they don't explain why there is a noticable difference in behaviour to cyclists, despite their traffic conditions being the exact same (perhaps even more dangerous for scooters). The road being dangerous is also no excuse to become a danger to others by riding on the sidewalk. Of course, it would be best if the traffic conditions were more safe for micromobility. But as long as that's not the case, the reasonable thing is to protect yourself.
All it takes is tougher regulation and enforcement. Just cos some drive erratically, doesn't mean we ban it for everyone. Same goes for cars
Scooters with its small wheels and standing position are definitely more dangerous for the rider than bicycles. But micromobility is the future.
I just hope more riders who share the space with pedestrians realize that they should be more attentive.
Bicycles are absolutely included under the classification of micromobility.
definitely, perhaps I wasn't clear enough
As someone who has been riding an e-scooter as my primary means of transportation in northern Utah for about 18 months, I've been very fortunate in having only a couple of near misses.
However, I've also been a CDL driver and use that training to keep myself as safe as possible. Using protective equipment certainly helps as well as extra lights for night riding.
The big problem I see is the short term rentals - there's no incentive/disincentive to use them responsibly. 90% or more of the time I see someone riding one down a sidewalk or against traffic, they're on a short term rental.
It's a multifaceted issue that requires better infrastructure, more education, and fewer cars
Ugh, shut the fuck up! Injuries happen. People heal. It's part of living an active life.
"Mobility device makes it easier to not use a car, cars hit people on that mobility device. Why is this mobility device so dangerous?"