E-scooters

We've had quite a bit of discussion about these, so I thought I'd start a thread. To clarify, by 'e-scooters' I mean the ones without seats (so riders stand up), small wheels, a relatively small treadboard, and a front stem topped with the handlebars. These are fitted with a small electrical engine that can propel them to considerable speeds given their low weight and the weight of the rider. I don't mean larger, motorcycle-like scooters (with a seat, windshield, etc.) that may likewise be fitted with an electrical engine in place of a petrol engine.

E-scooters have recently been marketed heavily all around the world and have recorded significant sales. Some countries are already making accommodations for their use, e.g. in segregated cycle tracks, whereas in the UK the legal situation remains unchanged from that which has previously governed other, similar contraptions like the 'Segway'. Machines like these count as licensable vehicles, i.e. may only be used on the public highway if a vehicle licence is granted, for which there is currently no mechanism in place (and no plans to introduce one). Other licensable vehicles require a driver to additionally acquire a driving licence.

I've put this in 'General' because it relates materially to cycling. The invention of the bicycle in 1817 by Karl Drais in Mannheim was a work of simple genius--a rigid frame with two wheels attached, of which one is steerable. That's it--many of the other parts that today we associate materially with cycling, such as crank-driven propulsion, chain transmission, or differential gearing, were added much later, and in the view of such luminaries as Mike Burrows (of Chris Boardman's Barcelona Olympics-winning monocoque track pursuit frame fame) are far less crucial from an engineering perspective than the possibility of staying upright on a bicycle by constant and almost unnoticeable small corrections through steering. This means that a rider is always very slightly falling in one direction or the other but able to prevent this by the feeling for which steering is required, which is very easy for us to develop--proverbially 'as easy as riding a bicycle'. There is no such thing as 'balance' on a bicycle, just an illusion of balance.

E-scooters, on this reading, like unmotorised scooters, are essentially bicycles, because they employ this basic mechanism. They are, however, another step in the long history of trying to find 'improvements' to the basic principle. The most prominent is probably to fit another wheel, or another two wheels, to prevent the falling described above. This terrified people right from the outset, and many copycat machines of Drais' invention were built with that extra wheel, or similar designs fitted with three wheels. However, as is still the case today, these were heavier and much less practical, and harder to control around corners.

Another very obvious improvement that people have aimed for has, of course, been the fitting of an engine to reduce or eliminate the amount of physical effort required by the rider. This first resulted in Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach's motorised bicycle, the first practical motor vehicle with an internal combustion engine (there were several steam-powered models before it). It was basically a 'safety' bicycle with a strong wooden frame (oddly reminiscent of Drais' first frames, given that there were already metal bicycle frames at the time), although two outrigger wheels were fitted to it, to address the above perceived problem. However, its main aim was to create an engine-powered vehicle. The rest is history.

Needless to say, these variants of the bicycle have long been considered by many to be more 'modern'. Nothing could be further from the truth. The two-wheeled, human-powered cycle is still very much in development and an eminently practical machine perfect for most urban transportation needs (see the recent resurgence of cargo bikes, very prominent in the early part of the 20th century and then almost forgotten about for decades), and many non-urban ones, although where distances are much greater, and loads heavier, the desire to reduce effort is, of course, completely understandable.

Still, the e-scooter is one of the most recent developments of this idea that the bicycle is an antiquated machine and that it needs to be changed. Now you can zip about without any effort! You're easily faster than on a bike, you arrive at work without breaking a sweat, and you can have fun along the way! What could possibly be the problem?