Why Americans Have A Love-Hate Relationship With E-scooters

The global market size for e-scooters is projected to surpass $30 billion by 2028. Although e-scooters have become a regular mode of transportation in major metropolitan areas, ride-share e-scooter businesses are struggling with profitability and facing issues working with cities.

Chapters:
00:00 — Introduction
02:01 — E-scooter rentals in cities
04:24 — Benefits
06:20 — Safety risks
08:36 — Profitability

Produced and Edited by: Liam Mays
Animation: Alex Wood
Supervising Producer: Jeniece Pettitt
Additional Camera: Magdalena Petrova
Editorial Support: Shawn Baldwin
Additional Footage: Getty Images, Bird

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Why Americans Have A Love-Hate Relationship With E-scooters

[Kingjay]

The big issue is just the lack of infrastructure for anything other than a car. A dedicated lane that allowed for bikes, scooters, etc solves all of the safety concerns. Scooters and bikes don’t have to ride on sidewalks to feel safe from cars. It’s literally giving up one lane of traffic, but in North America that’ll never happen. We need a newfound emphasis on human infrastructure as opposed to vehicle. Once we break that cycle things would get a lot better.

[Random_How-tos]

I literally broke my arm on an electric scooter and so I'm qualified to say, it's not the scooters, it's the people riding them. Wear a helmet if possible, my injuries would’ve been worse if I wasn’t wearing one. Even after my crash I still think that are a great way to get around the city. I’ve owned an electric scooter for three years and have ridden thousands of miles on it saving me a lot in gas and car insurance.

[rowanbixler]

The scooters themselves do not pose a safety issue, safety becomes an issue because of A LACK OF INFRASCRUCTURE for anything besides cars. Banning e-scooters does nothing but kick the can down the road until a city inevitably realizes how completely unmanageable their car congestion problems are

[GyroCannon]

We just need two things:
- infrastructure for non-cars
- places to "park" scooters
But this is North American city planning. We don't have either. I survived off a scooter for a while only because my workplace didn't care about me taking the scooter into my cubicle and the sidewalks were almost always completely empty (mostly suburban area / business park)

[yuriydee]

A lot of the e-scooter issues for these companies could be fixed by having docking areas similar to how bike share programs do it.

[brycebundens]

It would be great if the urban planning YouTube community differentiated personal e-scooter usage from rental e-scooters. There is a huge difference in the types of trips taken and overall sustainability as a mode.

[Brindlebrother]

Americans when cars lead to over 35, 000 fatalities per year: "Oh well. There's nothing we can do."

Americans when a scooter bumps into pedestrian: "OMG scooters r so dangerous! We must ban them! Think of everyone's safety!!"

[ayayin]

I've been riding my electric scooter to work for over 2 years now, over 3000 miles on it and I love it

[Arcticarc]

I believe e-scooter injuries are severe because riding shared ones 98% don’t have helmets. Privately owned one may be faster, but drivers usually gear themselves up

[SlugCatLife]

Bans e-scooters because of accidents, does not ban cars even though it's way more lethal. If they just made bike lanes bikes, roller-skates, skateboards and e-scooters could share them.

[sawd]

I couldn't wait for the ride share scooter in NYC so I just bought one. Aside from the inherent dangers, It saves time, energy and is a ton of fun. I wish I did it sooner.

[PostprandialTorpor]

I would love to see studies break down statistic of behavior and injury between new renters, veteran renters, new scooter owners and veteran scooter owners

[Alex-odnl]

As a cyclist, I don't hate scooters. I hate scooter rental companies.

[chris]

It’s not the E-scooters themselves that are causing cluttering on the sidewalks but rather the business model. I ride an e-scooter but I own it too so you don’t have to worry about my e-scooter laying around in the city where it shouldn’t be. I rarely have to even lock it up because I just bring it into buildings with me unless the shop asks me not to bring it inside. The only place that it’s crowding up is my bedroom but that’s okay with me because that’s my personal space.

[matthewboyd]

Americans: escooters destroy the athletics of our city

Meanwhile: parking taking up more land than the business itself, extending walking distance to not be walkable

[kevintyrrell]

Scooters were originally well priced at like 50 cents a minute but are now outrageously expensive . It's beyond stupid that I could wait at a light for two two minutes and that time just costed me dollars despite the motor on the scooter being idle. Some trips I'd go less than a mile and notice my bill was more expensive than an Uber pool ride. Outrageous. The upcharge is double or triple what it should be.

[DCuerpoJr]

Micro-mobility (electric scooters, bikes and skateboards) are a great option for urban commuting, but if you're going to own one then you should take a few safety precautions.
• Never charge the battery near other combustible materials.
• Never charge the battery in a place that blocks your escape routes.
• Never charge them overnight.
• Check the battery for any signs of swelling or physical damage after each use. Take the battery to a recycling facility if it's swelling or damage.
• Test ride the device in a safe parking lot to get familiar with its speed and capabilities.

I'm a first responder in a city and we respond to e-bike/scooter/skateboard fires nearly everyday and battery failures are the common cause.

[justineasley]

E-Scooters are a great solution to traffic congestion and pollution. But the rental companies got to go! Unless they have a docking station like many bike share companies have. In my city they are everywhere and blocking sidewalks, driveways etc. It’s also hard to move them out of the way because the brakes engage.

[marshapelo]

I ride e scooter everyday to and from work 5 miles away. Its been a year and i love it. No traffic in the bike lanes.

[LERJizz]

I love using e-scooters when I am in DC and cities that have them. These are, to my believe, possible solutions to the current problems:

• Road safety: Draw bike/scooter lanes in between the sidewalk and the off street parking (if it fits). If not, designate a section off a lane for scooters and bikes and paint them bright green so drivers can easily identify them. All is needed is about 3 feet in width for adequate space.

• Personal injury: Encourage users to wear helmets while riding e-scooters. Make helmets affordable through some government - company assisted programs.

• Cluttering: Designate places each block to park e-scooters. For example, in every other intersection, remove one or two parking spots and designate that parking as a e-schooner, e-bike, or personal bike parking spot. Make sure the signs are easily identifiable and that barriers are installed to prevent cars from using it as a car parking spot. This way people could stop leaving scooters on the sidewalks. I myself think that’s so annoying and disrespectful. People need a safe sidewalk free of clutter, specially people on wheelchairs.

• Charging stations: Since designated parking is possible, incentivize companies to invest in charging stations in the same newly designated e-scooter parking spots. This way scooters are always charged and not just laying unchanged on the side.

• Side walk incidents: As we know, pedestrian can be injured if riders use the sidewalk instead of the designated lanes or roads. But also, injuries are more commonly seen at night when cars collide with scooter. A possible solution would be to ban scooter using the sidewalk rides during the day time when the side walks are the busiest but only allow e-scooters to use sidewalks at night because the sidewalks are not as busy and the roads at night are more dangerous.

These are easily obtainable solutions that could help the growth of these companies, people coexisting with this new way of transportation, and safety.
That’s just my opinion. What do you guys think???