E-Scooters Are Driving People Insane

App-enabled electric scooters have popped up in cities around the world, creating legions of sworn enemies and exuberant fans along the way. Bloomberg QuickTake explains the public's love/hate relationship with e-scooters, and why they might be key to building the city of the future.

Video by Henry Baker, Sylvia Yang

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[langhamp]

Capping the number of cars in a city is an excellent idea.

[EugeneAyindolmah]

“Menace pedestrians and endanger their riders lives” Perfect description of cars

[bmsp]

Just wait till you here how many people die in cars.

[MatthewWunderlich]

“They litter [the city], menace pedestrians, and endanger their riders’ lives.” Are you talking about cars?

[heltok]

With kids using e-scooters households will need at least $6000 worth of candy for halloween

[fairlysplendid]

I live in Austin, TX and if anything these scooters have been a welcome addition. They make getting around downtown a breeze, save me time/money and encourage me to have a more active/outdoor lifestyle. I hadn’t realized how mentally draining dealing with parking/traffic had become.

[pastaboinch]

they are all over campus at the university I go to. if anything, I wish there were more of them.

[pureumkim]

It is not the scooter. It is the immaturity of the people that is the problem. Do you want more cars instead? Cars cost more and pollute more. Also, instead of trying to regulate the things, let the market do its job. If people hate it, scooter companies will go out of business.

[josee]

Make it an e-motorized leather recliner with a cup holder and I bet no one will complain.

[bernardfinucane]

Widen sidewalks and narrow down car lanes. I just spent a few days in Annecy, an alpine French town with lots of narrow streets, and I was amazed at how many small electric vehicles -- scooters of various descriptions -- there were. They are so quiet and convenient. They fit right in to the city. My favorite was a fat tire electric scooter towing a tiny trailer to make deliveries in a pedestrian zone.

[akirajounetsui]

Spoiler: people who get hurt on e-scooters are the same ppl who never were allowed to ride scooters as a kid and constantly told their kids “it’s dangerous”

[RadiumX]

This was literally the joke of South Park's episode yesterday LMAO

[godzilla]

I live in SF and I can't wait to buy my E-Scooter next month. I do theorize that SF has issues with it because you save money on having to buy a car, the insurance, and parking (which is nuts here in SF) and I believe all 3 entities work together to try to get rid of these efficiencies so they can stay in business. So the Xiao-Mi scooter is 450 on amazon and if its 2 dollars per ride, all it takes is 225 rides to be able to break even for a scooter and my colleagues scooter has lasted him more than a year now so it is extremely cost efficient, and if not on sports mode, can travel up to 15-18 miles or 10-12 mile straight uphill. In a place as expensive as SF, I feel like you need these scooters as a means to actually save money

[pandaplutten]

As long as the riders of the e-scooters follow rules and use common sense...it would be peace in the world! =) No but seriously, this has just moved the haters from hating bicycles to e-scooters...

[Tuppoo]

Here's something to think about:

Electric Scooter Guide did some math on the efficiency of electric scooters. They figured out how far you can go with $20 of energy, gasoline or electricity.

A Toyota Camry doing 30 MPG will go about 170 miles.
A Tesla Model S will go about 512 miles.

A Xiaomi M365?

Over 8700 miles. That's like riding from L.A to Dubai for $20.

[platypus]

People are always gonna reject new progress like when they charged people that thought the sun is the center of the solar system with hierarchy.

[xchopp]

This could work for dense cities. Otherwise, people care about the security and weather protection afforded by metal boxes. Oh -- and the "Look at me losers, I driving a Lexus SUV!" thing.

[jonpark]

The problem is not the e-scooter, but the abuses in specific "sharing economy" business model used. I purchased my own e-scooter. I fold it up and take it inside at the end of every journey. The complaint s noted, which are very real, do not apply to me, but rather the business model used. These corporations are abusive and predatory.

[PocketTab]

I got an ad of an e scooter while watching an e scooter news thing

[redelgado]

I like them but they don't belong on sidewalks. Put them in the bike lane.