How should local governments deal with the e-scooter problems?
Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2019 12:09 pm
Baltimore just kicked out Bird and came up with new terms for the remaining four rental companies: $70,000 for a one year permit for up to 1000 scooters and 10 cents per ride tax. They are also charging $500 fine for not taking scooters and bikes off streets from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. I'm not sure if this is per scooter of one missed scooter left out incurs the $500 fine. This looks like municipal piracy since there's no mention of how the city plans to appropriate it's new revenue stream to make scooting better or safer.
Atlanta had another scooter fatality last week. The city has recently begun cracking down on riders on sidewalks. All three fatalities so far this year were scooters out on the street colliding with vehicles. Scooters that top out at 15MPH do not belong in streets where cars travel at a much higher speed.
Earlier this year, man from Woodstock, GA hit a tree on a sidewalk in San Diego and is now taking the eternal celestial dirt nap. The town of Woodstock, Georgia immediately banned e-scooters even though none operate there and probably never would. The details of the incident in San Diego are missing information about the guy's sobriety, etc, but one fact is obvious: 15MPH scooters do not belong on sidewalks where pedestrians only move at 3mph.
Paris decided on a laissez-faire approach and just let all the scooter companies roost there. At one point, there were 12 companies operating in Paris and over 20,000 scooters out on the streets. The city is now proposing limiting the number of operators to two or three. The are also proposing speed limits, fines for improperly parked scooters, etc. The rental companies are littering the streets and don't have a way to control how or where the dockless scooters are placed at the end of a ride.
The safety and rider responsibility issues are two huge problems that the scooter companies have decided to ignore and unfortunately the local governments have all been forced to come up with some sort of resolutions including:
How do you think cities should regulate the dockless scooter (including wheels, e-bike, etc) industry?
Atlanta had another scooter fatality last week. The city has recently begun cracking down on riders on sidewalks. All three fatalities so far this year were scooters out on the street colliding with vehicles. Scooters that top out at 15MPH do not belong in streets where cars travel at a much higher speed.
Earlier this year, man from Woodstock, GA hit a tree on a sidewalk in San Diego and is now taking the eternal celestial dirt nap. The town of Woodstock, Georgia immediately banned e-scooters even though none operate there and probably never would. The details of the incident in San Diego are missing information about the guy's sobriety, etc, but one fact is obvious: 15MPH scooters do not belong on sidewalks where pedestrians only move at 3mph.
Paris decided on a laissez-faire approach and just let all the scooter companies roost there. At one point, there were 12 companies operating in Paris and over 20,000 scooters out on the streets. The city is now proposing limiting the number of operators to two or three. The are also proposing speed limits, fines for improperly parked scooters, etc. The rental companies are littering the streets and don't have a way to control how or where the dockless scooters are placed at the end of a ride.
The safety and rider responsibility issues are two huge problems that the scooter companies have decided to ignore and unfortunately the local governments have all been forced to come up with some sort of resolutions including:
- Outright bans
- Mafia tactics like big fees and fines
- Force the scooters off the sidewalks and into the streets
How do you think cities should regulate the dockless scooter (including wheels, e-bike, etc) industry?