E-Scooter discussion after fatal collision

That’s why rentals are stupid, you can’t rely on them being available when you need one. These and cycle hire bikes are great for tourists but not locals or commuters.

Also why spend a fortune renting something you could use every day for years like a scooter that only costs £400 to just buy. :confused:

I’d go out and buy one in an instant to commute to work if they were made legal for joe public but until then I’m avoiding.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
This is the problem though,
My work colleague lives around 1.5 miles away from work and he had an eScooter rank just down from his house and another rank over the road from the hospital.
He came in one morning thrilled that he had spent around £1.30 getting to work and couldn't wait to get back on one to go home.
He was never able to get another one again.
Click to expand...
All of the scooters have GPS tracking and the ones not in use are shown on the map.
Finding one is easy

51232346808_7651c26c24_c.jpg


When you click on a scooter you can see how much charge it has left, shown in miles and reserve it.

51232929644_1985f9ed2c_c.jpg
 
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SexyGreyFox said:
This is the problem though,
My work colleague lives around 1.5 miles away from work and he had an eScooter rank just down from his house and another rank over the road from the hospital.
He came in one morning thrilled that he had spent around £1.30 getting to work and couldn't wait to get back on one to go home.
He was never able to get another one again.
Click to expand...

Thrilled that he spent £2.60 a day when he could have walked for free and it would have taken around 20mins at a quick pace or 30 mins at a leisurely pace but would do him the world of good.
Or he could buy a 2nd hand bike of a reasonable standard for a few £100 quid and have it whenever he wanted.

Where I see these being useful are for journeys of several miles which remove the need for a car. Not for ones that can be easily and comfortably walked or cycled.
 
From the news stories about the trials the police sound like they're ready to enforce rules quite strictly, but that's definitely not the case here. You regularly see youths driving electric scooters round here with pretty appalling driving standards. As far as I know there is no local rental scheme so they must be privately owned and therefore illegal, but police don't seem to have stopped them (and they've common enough that a police car would definitely have seen them just in passing)...

I do think the form factor is a useful one though, and can imagine journeys into town or the train station etc being an ideal use for them. That said there need to be better safety features (like built in lights), and some kind of registration plate equivalent or something, because without regulation they're just a menace.
 
SDK^ said:
All of the scooters have GPS tracking and the ones not in use are shown on the map.
Finding one is easy
Click to expand...

The closest one was back at the rank that he lived by, the rest were all over Newcastle and on the Newcastle Campus where after only a few weeks the Campus chained them all up.

Dis86 said:
Thrilled that he spent £2.60 a day when he could have walked for free and it would have taken around 20mins at a quick pace or 30 mins at a leisurely pace but would do him the world of good.
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Only £1.30, he couldn't get one going back and for the 15 years he's worked at the hospital he walks there & back, he just wanted to try it.
 
There's lots of ***** driving cars, but we don't ban them.

Just require
1) A drivers license
2) Insurance
3) A helmet
4) An identifying number plate on the rear
5) Front and Rear lights + indicators

Ta-da, you've cut the ***** driving them by 95%
 
VincentHanna said:
There's lots of ***** driving cars, but we don't ban them.

Just require
1) A drivers license
2) Insurance
3) A helmet
4) An identifying number plate on the rear
5) Front and Rear lights + indicators

Ta-da, you've cut the ***** driving them by 95%
Click to expand...

Your final sentence is completely disproved by your preceding argument (minus the helmet bit).
 
Same goes for plenty of cyclists and motorcyclists.

Clearly all operators of vehicles are idiots so they should be banned immediately.

oh wait it’s just the few idiots who give a bad name for everyone.
 
arknor said:
way to many pot holes and bumpy roads for me to ever ride one of these things..

but I'd guess you just pull all your weight backwards when you stop hard?


lets say you add license plates, tests and insurance to a bicycle.

how many poor people do you think could afford it? are we trying to make some class system for the roads??? how about we add a new insurance for motorways that costs 20k a year and if your car is worth less than 100k you have to stick to the backroads.
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If would be cyclists are too poor to pay for plates and insurance, let them walk or take a bus, if some cretin on a pushbike damages my wife’s car, I want half a chance of reporting them and getting their insurance to pay for the damage.
As it is now, they squeeze past, bending electric car mirrors back, then pedal away, flipping you the bird.
Perhaps you view my suggestion as outrageous, just as I view your hopefully joking 20k p.a. insurance and less than 100k cars being restricted to backroads as ludicrous.
 
Don't see the difference between escooters and ebikes.
You can buy a ebike converter for like £150 and be fully legal with no regulations up to 15.5mph (same as escooters can do) while being heavier, take up more space and have the capability to go MUCH quicker.

The only thing that should happen (across the board including normal bikes) is required helmet, lights, indicator and no pavement riding. If they catch you violating any of those, you get fined.

Maybe have a driving license required for ebike/scooter for operating a "motorised vehicle" which can be checked if you are stopped for riding dangerously. Or something else like the motorbike CBT as a new license class to prove you are somewhat competent.
 
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MatsyLR said:
Don't see the difference between escooters and ebikes.
You can buy a ebike converter for like £150 and be fully legal with no regulations up to 15.5mph (same as escooters can do) while being heavier, take up more space and have the capability to go MUCH quicker.

The only thing that should happen (across the board including normal bikes) is required helmet, lights, indicator and no pavement riding. If they catch you violating any of those, you get fined.

Maybe have a driving license required for ebike/scooter for operating a "motorised vehicle" which can be checked if you are stopped for riding dangerously. Or something else like the motorbike CBT as a new license class to prove you are somewhat competent.
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ebike require you to peddle, an escooter is throttle controlled.

An ebike that complies with current regulations is treated as a normal bicycle.

These are

Must be fitted with pedals that can propel it,
motor must not output more than 250w continuous power and
must not provide electrical assistance beyond 15.5mph.

If your bike does not comply with the above then it requires Type Approval which includes ebikes with throttle control, they are then considered as mopeds and require appropriate requirements like tax/mot and insurance.

Most of the kits you can buy do not comply with the above legislation as they exceed 250w continuous power, even if they are limited to 15.5mph, they also more often than not have throttle control which again doesn't comply with regulation.
 
Don't see the difference between escooters and ebikes.
I don't think the handling of a escooter at speed, is any where as near stable/predictable as a bike on the non-billiard smooth roads we have in the uk
(castor angle, wheel gyroscopic effect)
 
As well as handling on rough roads, other differences between escooters and ebikes that come to mind :
  • Visibility - escooters basically have the same profile as a person standing upright, imo making them harder to spot, harder to tell that they're a vehicle, and more likely to be hidden by small blind spots / obstacles. Also the issues of escooters lacking reflectors and lights - also applies to some bikes, but at least some people do fit reflectors and lights to their bikes, whereas all the escooters I see basically look blacked out.
  • Braking - I'd like to see an escooter stop anywhere near as quickly as a bike.
  • Weaving through obstacles - escooters are even more able to make tight turns around cars or roadside obstacles, squeeze through narrow gaps, suddenly and unexpectedly entering or leaving a stream of traffic, racing round corners on pavements, or emerging from behind obstacles.
  • Form factor - while this makes escooters more convenient, it also increases the temptation and possibility for riders to drive them through pedestrian areas right to their destination at high speed, as well as joining or leaving roads in a dangerous manner.
Imo this means that good defensive driving is even more important on a scooter than a bike for everyone's safety, and at the same time it's even easier to ride them dangerously and inconsiderately.

Personally think some kind of driving licence and registration system should be used for both ebikes and escooters, but imo escooters need controls on them even more than ebikes.
 
That’s fine but in reality the vast majority of bikes on the road are 20kg steal monsters with poorly maintained v breaks.

Scoots can indeed stop very quickly, as quickly as a normal bike bike. You can also step off them if you need to while they are still moving.
 
Anything to crack down on these would v free great.

This is no exaggeration I see them 50 percent of the time I drive a mile from home.
 
I think most people are being old fuddy duddies on this - using e-scooters in continental Europe is amazingly convenient for getting around a city. Providing that there is an age limit I don’t see any issue.
 
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