E-scooters

will most of them end up in land fill when they break?

After the bike shop has told them to do one, maybe yeah

Haha number of punctures on e scooters is mad, most are borderline impossible to get the tyre off, the better quality ones the wheels are a two piece.

You need a solid trye one

50mph in Hyde Park!

https://twitter.com/MPSRoyal_Parks/status/1357854916677693446

Are these e-scooter outgroups helping us cyclists become an ingroup. As cycle use becomes more popular (at least here in inner london), do e-scooter riders become the bad guys.
Everyone has to have someone else to down look down on. Love to see evidence either way on this.

Not that unusual. Driving up Pentonville road other day and guy smashed it past me. At lights I asked him how fast he’s pushed it. He said 55mph before the wobble got tiring.

I don't know what the situation is now but the early generations of rental scooters only lasted
a few weeks before having to be replaced.

Are these e-scooter outgroups helping us cyclists become an ingroup. As cycle use becomes more popular (at least here in inner london), do e-scooter riders become the bad guys.
Everyone has to have someone else to down look down on. Love to see evidence either way on this.

Reminds me of paris, where motorists and cyclists get on much better than in London because of their shared enemy in the motor scooter, especially those three wheeled ones with their sudden sharp turn ability.

However lazy one has to be and dismissive of the environmental impact of mining and disposing of the material for batteries is beyond me. I have half a mind to vandalize said outcrops of chinese landfill litter glowing gleefully by the hedges next to a bemused rabbit and fox.

Compare this to the amount of waste produced by the automobile industry. Orders of magnitude greater. I'm 100% in favour of anything small, light, quiet and limited to 15mph.

Interesting side note, in the past year I've seen just as many non e scooters as electric, either I'm just tuned into them more now or there is a few people using them to reduce their commute time*

*All seen pretty much approaching train stations in the morning. If your walk to the station is smooth/no real hills I can see it making a difference. In many other cities and countries I've seen really quite widespread use of manual scooters by adults just getting to work quicker than walking (esp Spain/Italy/southern France and some Portuguese places). Doubt those folk would switch to assistance, weight and cost of humping it around the rest of the time

So many folk turning up /trying to get their basically "fake" scooters repaired.
Recently had one that some poor sod had paid £1800 new for this cdm crapper, yeah it kinda looked nice from a distance, but once close you could see just how nasty most of it was made. The importer to UK likely made a tasty £1500 on that £1800 sale. A fair price for a fair product, many of these things are not.

https://www.halfords.com/scooters/electric-scooters/carrera-impel-is-1-electric-scooter-451870.html

Halfords have started selling a Carrera branded scooter now.
at least this one has built in lights.

The only sensible course of action is to ban e-scooters. A shocking incident here ...

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/boy-three-seriously-injured-feltham-scooter-hit-run-b933531.html

... but the main problem remains that people are mainly using them to avoid walking and cycling, with a small minority using them in place of the car for short trips. What I didn't know:

It emerged last month that e-scooters have been used in hundreds of offences, including assaults, burglaries and anti-social behaviour.

No link given, but there's this Independent story, which uses the same wording, so may be the one being referred to:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/escooters-thefts-assaults-police-uk-b1837716.html

Obviously, these are just absolute numbers not placed in context, e.g. what other regularly-occurring offences they may have replaced, how they compare to the overall picture, etc. I do find it interesting that they should crop up in police reports as significant factors, though.

Hope the little guy recovers fully.

Terrible incident. I wish the young person a quick recovery

The only sensible course of action is to ban e-scooters.

This will be impossible to enforce, and I'm surprised that you call for a ban. E-scooters will benefit the urban transport mix if they're integrated properly. The current hysteria and reporting of these rare incidents reminds me of calls to ban cycling when a really rare KSI occurs. As you know Oliver, it's car drivers that cause the vast majority of the harm

the main problem remains that people are mainly using them to avoid walking and cycling

Can you cite some evidence as to who uses them. The data from trials hasn't come in. The London e-scooter companies will be targeting drivers and trials here have yet to start.
Having used an e-scooter for developing the training programme it hasn't replaced cycling, apart from the occasional short trip where there's an issue with locking my cycle.

(Anecdotally, many of the people who flag me down to ask about e-scooting are drivers, including a few who have rolled down their window when passing me to ask where they could get one )

It emerged last month that e-scooters have been used in hundreds of offences, including assaults, burglaries and anti-social behaviour.

As are cycles. How many mobile phones get nicked by young men on MTBs lifting them from tables outside restaurants/pubs. Witnessed a couple of these 'muggings' in Stoke Newington

This reporting is part of the hysteria around people's resistance to new things.
'50 year old man leaves car at home and rides an e-scooter to Tesco' is not as interesting a headline compared to 'Gangs on e-scooters terrorise pensioner'

'London’s electric scooter trials will kick off on June 7th'

https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/17/22440320/london-electric-scooter-rental-trial-dott-lime-tier

Three scooter companies have been selected to offer rentals for up to 12 months as part of the pilot program: Dott, Lime, and Tier. Privately owned electric scooters will continue to be illegal to ride on streets.

The selected companies will initially offer scooters to rent across six boroughs and local authorities in London: Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, Richmond upon Thames, the City of London, and Canary Wharf. While rentals will not be available in Tower Hamlets, Londoners will be able to ride their rented scooters through the borough. Lambeth and Southwark boroughs are also seeking to participate in the trial.

Why not lewisham? :((((

Any recommendations for an e scooter? Something with bigger wheels that can be used in the rain. Cheaper the better

.

E-scooters - Riding on footpath fast and dangerously mostly by egoistic teeneagers who putting all pedestrians into risk of injury and not giving a s...t.Scooterers are wrong and they're even arguing back rude way....E-scoot toy boy's ! Just throw that dangerous toy away to a recycling heap when you get your first puncture,and get yourself a proper bicycle :) Lol !

Any recommendations for an e scooter? Something with bigger wheels that can be used in the rain. Cheaper the better

This sounds like you haven't read the thread.

Feel your pain, seen plenty been ridden by kids in a less than ideal way. But seen many more being ridden by adults 20-45 year old going to work, taking their kids to school or just buzzing around the park.

I reckon within a year or so the 'bad kids' will move onto something else, or just grow up a bit. Last summer in my workshop had dozens of kids (most were not the nicest kids ;),) on e-scooters with punctures and issues with them in Glasgow. Out and about in town you'd see gangs of kids riding about causing havoc. This year, I think I've seen one. So its already less of an issue IMO

Would much rather be slightly annoyed once per walk having to change my path whilst walking to avoid a scooter, than be actually ran over/harranged/felt to be less of a human because I'm not inside a £70k SUV.

All of this.

I see someone who looks like they work in construction (safety boots, helmet etc) use it for commute daily through the local park.

It has its usage for sure.

They should be looked as an alternative to cars IMO. And they are just filling the gap of awful public transport infrastructure.

You always get dickheads in every kind of transport vehicle, I'd hope the evidence is anecdotal and they are the exception.

I am in south Essex and Spin e-scooters have been here for a few months.

To rent you need to install an app, upload a copy of your drivers licence and complete a "safety" course, but considering the vast number of young teens on them, they are not very stringent with the compliance of these rules.

Sunday morning rides usually require me to stop at least twice to move abandoned scooters from the cyclepaths, if they were strewn as carelessly on main roads, there would be an outcry.

For big wheels and weather resistance you should look at the aer 557.

Used the pink scooties in Bristol when my car was getting work done. Much quicker than the bus and walking. Linking it to my driving licence concerned me, but has anyone actually been prosecuted for dangerous scooting? Lots of youngsters on them (frequently two up) who must be using their parent's licences. The scooters tend to end up parked pretty well especially compared to the old bike share we used to have, the GPS is pretty fussy on where they can be left.