Eh-Scooters. You have been warned, my British Friends

Yes I agree. I must say at a bus stop I always stand back to look at bus times if necessary. As you say as well it is best to try & be somewhere safe before taking a call.
But as my daughter said with the hands free you can put your phone in your pocket or even in your bag & zip it up, it’s a bit more security.

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If I have to look at my phone at bus stops I try to tuck myself behind or as close as possible to the biggest, most glowering looking man there. I think I probably make them nervous though. :grinning:

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:joy:good idea!

BBC News - E-scooters: Public nuisance or climate-friendly travel?

I was down in Southsea last weekend and there were stands of them there. Suspect it’s like most things… the majority who use them will have no problems and cause no problems but there will be a few idiots who will ride them stupidly. And, inevitably, do it in a stupidly visible and/or dangerous manner that will taint the reputation of the law-abiding majority.

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I’ve now begun to see lines of e-scooters available to rent in Central London. However, Royal Parks have now banned these from the parks.

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I wonder how this will be policed in practice, unless there is some built in stop for them when they enter the Royal Parks.

Seems a slightly odd decision, not sure how I feel about it. Plus we don’t get to see a video of a Red Deer chasing someone on a scooter.

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In most Royal Parks even cycling is limited to a specific number of limited routes. Pedestrians have always had priority. In the parks I use in central London I often see park patrols stopping cyclists, usually people on Sanrander bikes.

There is now a line of e-scooters for rent on an island in Trafalgar Square. I despair at the thought of new users renting their first in the midst of traffic ridden intersections, or practising on the pavement or pedestrian areas there with families enjoying the sites.

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People were riding Santander bicycles along the platforms at London Bridge and Waterloo East railway stations last night.

It surely oughtn’t to be beyond the brains of techies to install some sort of cut off mechanism that stops e-scooters being used or even taken onto sensitive areas like railway stations. The brakes come on on Sainsbury’s shopping trolleys if you try to push them from the store precincts to the bus stop.

I’ve seen people riding with a passenger on these things. :dizzy_face:

The same is true for cars, but for one reason or another this has not happened. Far more people have been injured by cars speeding, than scooters speeding, and so the money should be put into stopping cars from speeding, as a priority over banning other means of travel (scooters, bikes) that are overall far less risk to peoples safety overall.
Provisions for newer forms of transport like scooters and cars are far behind demand, and this needs to change. Maybe one day Lewisham will catch up with the rest of London…

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The Uber electric ones are speed limited in certain areas and I believe stop working when outside their catchment zone.

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The law is being blatently broken by e scooter riders and (on pavement)adult bike riders .I have never seen any police stopping them.

Not the first time I see these scooters zooming about earphones in or on mobile no road awareness. Near misses but they don’t care road priority to them. I have seen a car bump another car the cause scooter :kick_scooter: . They Didn’t hang about to acknowledge not my problem attitude. Mind you they didn’t notice or care. Wasn’t a serious accident could of been. Even seen ones with seats now that was a just eat delivery person using this style. Whatever next? The world sure as gone mad and lost itself to something. Nope it must be me :crazy_face:

The BBC are reporting on how easy it is to have e-scooters modified so that they can reach speeds of up to 20mph, for as little as £15:

Given it’s already illegal to ride private e-scooters on pavements and roads, I don’t know how criminalising scooter modifications will achieve much - as the article points out:

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You don’t even need to pay a mechanic, there are step by step guides on google.

Well, indeed that does sound terrifying when most performance cars are sensibly limited to 155mph despite the fact that the speed limit is 70mph. You can of course fortunately still pay the manufacturer to remove the limiter, legally so that you have the opportunity to illegally drive even faster than double the speed limit.

So yes, I agree, criminalising modifications won’t achieve very much. It’s the fact that people are concerned about limiting eScooters the I find baffling. How about limiting cars to 20mph limits where applicable in cities instead? I’d prefer more people riding eScooters and fewer people in cars to be honest.

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My main concern is the number of people who ride them in the pavement, it’s scary how fast some people ride them on pedestrian footpaths.

So if I had the option between a scooter doing 15/20mph on the pavement or a car doing 30mph on the road I’d take the car any day, because in my view the former poses far more of a danger to my kids and other kids, and others of course eg the less mobile.

I don’t however think they are issues that need to fight against each other, you can actively support both (or disagree with both of course!).

On the road I don’t have a massive issue with them.

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eScooters most certainly do not cause more of a danger to kids than cars. I’m happy to be corrected with stats. Also I imagine it’s hard to get up to 15mph on any pavement around here.

Meanwhile I walked around town for a couple of hours today delivering newsletters and I saw exactly zero eScooters (road or pavement) - there were however plenty of cars doing questionable speeds.

I think really though, your argument makes a good case for segregated infrastructure. Pavements for pedestrians, segregated lanes for bikes and scooters (happy to share here) and a lane for motor vehicles.

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