Electric Scooters

[Lightning]

What exactly are the benefits of a Hire E-scooter compared to a Hire E-bicycle?
1. Single person conveyance.
2. Electrical power
3. The rider has to steer.
4 The rider has to balance.
5. Transports rider from A to B.

On the E-bicycle the rider determines the speed by actually pedalling upto a maximum 15mph with electrical assistance.

On the E-scooter the rider determines the speed using a hand throttle without any other form of physical assistance from the rider.

So, the E-bicycle aids the rider by providing an element of exercise and physical movement.
The E-scooter does nothing.

They are much cheaper to buy for a start. The rental price is only £30/ month for unlimited 45 minute rides.The bus is £4.50 a day here.

There are no rental ebikes here, probably too complex and expensive to make the business case work.

Many of the non ebike rentals ended up in the harbour, and they pulled out eventually.

 

[WelshGas]

It’s already started. I imagine many people think the opposite is true.

Large areas of London to be made car-free as lockdown eased

Mayor Sadiq Khan says city needs to be repurposed for people as it emerges from coronavirus restrictions

www.theguardian.com

It’s been a very, very long 6 weeks.
Maybe Khan and his spokesman live in a different time-zone.

 

[WelshGas]

They are much cheaper to buy for a start. The rental price is only £30/ month for unlimited 45 minute rides.The bus is £4.50 a day here.

There are no rental ebikes here, probably too complex and expensive to make the business case work.

Many of the non ebike rentals ended up in the harbour, and they pulled out eventually.

Yeah, I suppose an E-scooter death is cheaper all round, but probably of more benefit to the Organ Transplant Units.

 

[Lightning]

It’s already started. I imagine many people think the opposite is true.

Large areas of London to be made car-free as lockdown eased

Mayor Sadiq Khan says city needs to be repurposed for people as it emerges from coronavirus restrictions

www.theguardian.com

Its going to happen.

As early as the mid-Seventies, the northern city of Groningen was already turning virtually car free.

A car free future? How UK cities are moving towards a pedestrian age

With York announcing plans to ban private vehicles from its centre, Colin Drury asks: Is it a blueprint for a better urban life?

www.independent.co.uk

 

[GrannyJen]

This perception might be because you are an old fart though? What do you think of skate boarders?

As an old fart, as long as they don't bash into me or my bike then long may they board their skates

 

[Lightning]

It’s been a very, very long 6 weeks.
Maybe Khan and his spokesman live in a different time-zone.
View attachment 81031

They have taken the opportunity to make the closures permanent, as they said they said they would.

 

[Lightning]

Yeah, I suppose an E-scooter death is cheaper all round, but probably of more benefit to the Organ Transplant Units.

Given the reduction in organ doners resulting from cars killing and injuring cyclists, I imagine the need for organs will go down.

 

[Lightning]

They have taken the opportunity to make the closures permanent, as they said they said they would.

They have also recently closed lots of roads in the centre of Bristol to cars completely recently, using bus gates, and also put in plastic bollards to separate cycle lanes from traffic at the expense of car space. Getting across central Bristol you are diverted around the centre now.

 

[WelshGas]

Given the reduction in organ doners resulting from cars killing and injuring cyclists, I imagine the need for organs will go down.

Shows what you know about the situation. Suggest you do some research.
Hint, on this matter the Guardian is not the best resource.

 

[Lightning]

Shows what you know about the situation. Suggest you do some research.
Hint, on this matter the Guardian is not the best resource.

It’s not relevant to the discussion anyway, but as you consider escooters more dangerous than cars, then you are not best qualified to offer advice.

 

[WelshGas]

They have also recently closed lots of roads in the centre of Bristol to cars completely recently, using bus gates, and also put in plastic bollards to separate cycle lanes from traffic at the expense of car space. Getting across central Bristol you are diverted around the centre now.

Good. It didn’t have much going for it in the first place.

 

[Lightning]

Good. It didn’t have much going for it in the first place.

Yes, not too many bingo halls or sea front promenades here.

 

[GrannyJen]

Well, this is exciting.

I'm an old fart, transplant surgery is the new boom industry and the motor car is the answer to population explosion.

I think I will go back to being an historian when horse sh*it rather than bull sh*it clogged up our airwaves

 

[andyinluton]

It’s not relevant to the discussion anyway, but as you consider escooters more dangerous than cars, then you are not best qualified to offer advice.

I would be willing to bet a fairly large lump of money, that far more pedestrians have been hit whilst on the pavement by E scooters than by cars. I certainly cant remember having to jump out of the way of a car whilst on the pavement.

 

[WelshGas]

It’s not relevant to the discussion anyway, but as you consider escooters more dangerous than cars, then you are not best qualified to offer advice.

Of course it is relevant. Just because you don’t know much about it. Unfortunately I do. From both sides, the recipients waiting for that phone call and the Donor arriving in A/E.
More Donors, more phone calls . So go for it. Someone somewhere is waiting for you.

 

[Lightning]

I would be willing to bet a fairly large lump of money, that far more pedestrians have been hit whilst on the pavement by E scooters than by cars. I certainly cant remember having to jump out of the way of a car whilst on the pavement.

I bet more pedestrians have been killed by cars than by escooters, since escooters were introduced.

 

[Lightning]

Well, this is exciting.

I'm an old fart, transplant surgery is the new boom industry and the motor car is the answer to population explosion.

I think I will go back to being an historian when horse sh*it rather than bull sh*it clogged up our airwaves

Maybe do a jigsaw?

 

[GrannyJen]

I bet more pedestrians have been killed by cars than by escooters, since escooters were introduced.

Probably but that is scant cause for justifying more means of carnage into the mix.

Next!!

 

[Lightning]

Probably but that is scant cause for justifying more means of carnage into the mix.

Next!!

Agreed, replace the worst source of carnage with the lesser source of carnage. More space for everyone except cars.

 

[andyinluton]

If we banned pedestrians it would save an awful lot of lives by the sound of things.

 

[GrannyJen]

Agreed, replace the worst source of carnage with the lesser source of carnage. More space for everyone except cars.

Goodness, an old fart gets a reply without a guardian link... I really am moving up the ranks of fartdom

 

[Lightning]

Goodness, an old fart gets a reply without a guardian link... I really am moving up the ranks of fartdom

The more we see older women succeed, the more they will succeed | Gaby Hinsliff

Anne Robinson’s new job might not seem relevant to the average working woman, but visibility is vital to defeat ageism, says Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff

www.theguardian.com

 

[GrannyJen]

The more we see older women succeed, the more they will succeed | Gaby Hinsliff

Anne Robinson’s new job might not seem relevant to the average working woman, but visibility is vital to defeat ageism, says Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff

www.theguardian.com

Well, I spent the whole of my life nearly as a write off,

Thrown into correction homes as an adolescent, broken by health problems before I was 40, without even an O level to my name leaving school, and Assistant Professor at a major university before 50.

Age is not a handicap, it's a privilege: I came home today after cycling 900 miles to raise money for people who will never cycle, or walk, or climb, or run.... and I just consider to be aged 74, to be allowed to even reach the age of 74, to be an almighty privilege and I promise to who I believe in to never waste my body, my health, my brain by just sitting on my arse when I could get off it and help others.

An old fart and proud of it.

 

[Amarillo]

Maybe if the Council made up its mind regarding parking then you wouldn’t have a problem.
A 2 lane road with no yellow lines, hence parking allowed and a large cross hatched area in the centre narrowing the road considerably. Why?
I think the driver was being very sensible, trying to park without obstructing the pavement or the traffic lane.

The hatched area is for centre road bollards at a junction.

After the latest death on the road (there have been 2 deaths on the 1/2 mile road in 40 years), the council decided to install bollards at every junction, with hatched sections between the bollards. Needless to say the bollards are regularly mown down.

They’d have done better to slow traffic by narrowing the motor lanes with segregated cycle lanes to keep apart pedestrians, cycles/scooters/etc, and cars.

 

[Amarillo]

Stop being deliberately pedantic.
You banging on about cars illegally driving on the pavement has nothing to do with electric scooters.

At least you now seem to accept it is endemic and generally ignored/accepted.

Cars do not drive along the pavements at 25kph unlike electric scooters.

On a road like yours with no visible pedestrians I don't have a problem with bikes or scooters on the pavement.

Try Holborn or Covent Garden where I spend most of my time, and anything other than pedestrians on the pavement cause chaos. At a guess most of the scooter riders would previously been tube / bus passengers.

I think I agree with you here. Leave the pavement to pedestrians.

Looking at the current low usage of buses during the working day, there is a good argument to get rid of buses completely and turn the bus lanes over to scooters & bikes.

I think that there will be changes to bus routes and bus frequency as we learn to live with C19. Some bus lanes in London are already being turned over to cyclists, and presumably e-scooters once privately owned ones are permitted on the road.