E - Scooters: Genius or Menace?

1spliff2guinnies

1spliff2guinnies

Member
So Lime scooters who I am sure all you Ameribros are familiar has launched the ride-share scooters here in New Zealand. 600 in total in my hometown of Auckland.

After riding on one to see what the hype was about I formulated my opinion on them. It essentially boils down to this: Excellent in the theory, horrible in reality.

The scooter itself felt good to ride on the pavement and flat areas in general. However, riding uphill it struggled and needed to be pushed and downhill felt scarier than any downhill MTB trail I've ever ridden, with the speed limiter constantly fighting with me to break the scooter. The breaks themselves were very weak for how fast they are allowed to go.

After only 2 weeks I've seen these clog up footpaths, been thrown in waterways and put in rediculous spots where you couldn't ride to normally. They are too fast for footpaths and sidewalks and felt too dangerous for the majority of public areas. On the road you are in battle with the traffic and I felt more of a nuisance than anything else and I was fearing for my life on rough surfaces thanks to the hard wheel design of the wheels and the excessive turn radius of the fork.

The rules for using them cannot be enforced like having a drivers licence or wearing a helmet and riding with only one person. (on multiple occasions I've seen people riding them with up to 2 others on them).

Overall I think they are too dangerous for the average person and are more of an eyesore without actually helping with traffic management. Also they are expensive as fuck too.

What do you bros think?
 
Most people can't even ride their regular bike in a straight line without crashing. Why would you want these people on electric scooters or bikes that they don't even own or care about? I don't live in a city but I can only imagine you just have kooks cashing these things all day and clogging up footpaths.
 
13954825:theabortionator said:
That's one of the 5 things that are illegal in reno?
Click to expand...

And honestly, when I think of places where I would like to ride an electric scooter....Reno is not on that fucking list.

They have really opened up my lunch options working in downtown Portland.
 
We have those and Birds in salt lake. I wonder if they’ll fly south for the winter or do they just let them get buried in snow?
 
Lots of cities or parts of cities are outlawing them as time goes by. They're a cool idea yeah but annoying as fuck. I can't tell you how many drunk people I've seen on these darting across traffic at night. No one wears helmets so cheers to a TBI. People ride these down the street without regard for traffic laws. I saw a girl trying to ride one in the rain yesterday; it was pretty funny.

Cool idea, but a nuisance and public safety concern. Probably here to stay but expect more cities to enact regulations.
 
im not surprised. i agree it sounds like a good idea but shit, people can't even handle walking and biking

by rule/law, are they intended to be used on the road or the sidewalk?
 
The way our cities are set-up they are a complete menace. They should be treated exactly like a bike becasue they move at about the same speed. So they should not be driven on sidewalks. The bike lanes are few and far between do people have to ride them on sidewalks. When you have stupid people zoomin around sidewalks at 20mph bad things will happen

Seattle skipped the scooters and did the lime bikes. They are legit.
 
Ride-share bikes are legit and gladly use them if I want to dart somewhere quickly. Saw a girl eat shit the other day on a scooter when she hit a pot hole. Felt so bad for her.
 
limebikes are the shit. very useful. the scooters are terrifying. friend of a friend fractured his skull after falling off of one
 
Here in Christchurch NZ those are an actual Menace. Never charged, always broken and almost kill multiple people a month. I hate those things.
 
Ingenious in many ways.. genious in many was as well but I think their biggest flaw is in the Portland and Seattle Markets.. let’s be real it rains here and the streets are wet not to mention it also snows sometimes i’m Sure if they stayed around long enough for the companies to review the performances in these markets they would most certainly see staggering decline in the wet months here.. which would be a big setback financially.

Other than that the idea of mobility is genius, so genius that companies like Über and Lyft have invested in these companies.
 
So I've been zingin around on these thing in Austin for the past few days.

I.

Am.

A.

Fan.

I do get the dangers and annoyance associated with them. If they were in my city maybe I would become annoyed, but omg I have been having a blast.
 
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