Electric scooters have become popular in recent years, but they are not exempt from detractors. Some people don't like electric scooters because of the high level of ride-sharing services that have appeared across the country. In addition, some younger riders tend to be reckless, which can be a nuisance for pedestrians. I think this is a much bigger problem than people leaving them in bad places.
Most streets in Los Angeles don't have bike lanes, and riding a motorcycle on the street can be a bad idea, so you're often forced to ride on the sidewalk, which can be annoying and dangerous for everyone involved. Sometimes they leave them in bad places. I honestly don't think this is a problem at all. Even the scandalously placed scooters I've seen on the Internet don't look like much.
You can take two seconds to move them or just go around them. While some residents may complain that electric scooters go too fast, clutter sidewalks, or cause accidents, they're a fraction of the size of cars, are quiet, and, as we just mentioned, are environmentally friendly. I never ride electric scooters on roads, as it seems too dangerous, and I haven't seen anyone else do it either. But if electric scooters could replace cars on the road, that would not only make them safer, but it would also create a true mobility revolution.
Whatever their feelings beforehand, when people ride electric scooters, they tend to fall in love with them. Now, all of a sudden, I go out, blinking in the harsh daylight, and I see a wave of opinion pieces about how everyone hates these new electric scooters; so much so that they are burning them and throwing them from cliffs into the ocean, etc. In fact, electric scooters “seem to have had fewer injuries than walking and only one little more than riding a bicycle for an average year. Lime recently promised to switch its operating vehicles to 100% electric vehicles by 2030, and signed a commitment with 75 international companies to boost the deployment of electric vehicles.
Nowadays, it is more or less a fact that micromobility solutions, such as electric scooters, are part of a major transportation revolution. While some prohibitions are still in place, urban commuters have generally become accustomed to electric scooters in overwhelming numbers. As roadblocks are lifted and people avoid public transportation, electric scooters (electric powered foot scooters) are becoming more popular. Passengers have adopted electric scooters as much more than occasional shared vehicles, but also as their primary means of personal transportation.
The surveys showed less than 50% support for electric scooters among respondents who hadn't yet ridden one. Riders surveyed in Denver largely approved of electric scooters, and 55% of those surveyed said they “love” or “like” scooters. While getting on an electric scooter to get from point A to point B is a popular mode of transportation in many cities across the country, there also seems to be an increasingly aggressive reaction against electric scooters from companies such as Lime, Bird, Uber and Lyft. These findings are reflected in research by the Lufthansa Innovation Center that classifies the estimated carbon emissions of various types of transport, suggesting that the average emissions of spring-less electric scooters are higher than those of trains, buses, electric bicycles, electric cars and hybrids and even gasoline scooters.
