e-scooter trial

[cycleman]

I saw someone riding a scooter today and signalling right which the scooter steering seemed very twitchy. It might explain why so few scooter riders indicate where they are intending to go 

[Kim]

The ones that have electronic indicators fitted seem to mostly be used to indicate that the rider has no idea what that switch is for.

(I passed one that was blinking away on the pavement earlier.  Looked like the rider had parked it, but failed to end the ride on the app, so the scooter was still powered up with lights and indicators going.)

I certainly find them twitchy.  Much more so than, say, an M-type Brompton.  OTOH, I have a lot of bike riding experience and very little scooter experience, so maybe you get used to it?

[Cudzoziemiec]

https://thebristolcable.org/2021/07/bristol-voi-e-scooters-are-replacing-more-walking-and-cycling-than-car-journeys/

Weca says more than 370,000 car journeys have been replaced since the start of the experiment in October last year, reducing more than 200 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

It says 44% cent of journeys would otherwise have been walked, 6% cycled and 31% driven, but that riders use e-scooters to go to gyms and leisure facilities.

There are no statistics yet for public transport, which is struggling to recover from the pandemic, but the combined authority says e-scooters are used to complement buses and train trips.

In addition to not having figures for public transport journeys replaced by e-scooters, the glaring omissions are newly created journeys and taxis. I expect that a lot of the evening usage replaces taxis that students and other yps would have taken back from clubs and pubs, and a fair few are just because. There's also no information about where the figures come from: was it a survey of Voi hirers or is it somehow calculated from changes in other traffic figures?

[Kim]

It's the public transport figures that will be most interesting I think.

Makes sense that hire scooters/bikes would tend to replace journeys with a walking component, as they tend to involve a bit of walking anyway.  I'm sure a scooter looks pretty tempting if you're waiting for a bus.

Drivers, like cyclists, will tend to be set up to make a door-to-door journey already, unless the parking is particularly awkward.

[Cudzoziemiec]

The public transport figures will be difficult to compare and to project forwards due to coronafear. But the fact they haven't yet got bus figures suggests the data comes from some sort of extrapolation not a survey, as a survey would surely return all the data together.

[citoyen]

I certainly find them twitchy.  Much more so than, say, an M-type Brompton.  OTOH, I have a lot of bike riding experience and very little scooter experience, so maybe you get used to it?

Tiny wheels, practically zero trail, high centre of gravity. Of course they're going to be twitchy!

Or 'manoeuvrable', to put it in marketing terms.

I guess you could compensate with extremely wide handlebars, but then you would look even more ridiculous while riding one.

My two biggest fears with regard to e-scooters, and what most puts me off riding them, is what happens when you hit a pothole, and what happens when you need to stop quickly.

[nuttycyclist]

I certainly find them twitchy.  Much more so than, say, an M-type Brompton.  OTOH, I have a lot of bike riding experience and very little scooter experience, so maybe you get used to it?

Tiny wheels, practically zero trail, high centre of gravity. Of course they're going to be twitchy!

Or 'manoeuvrable', to put it in marketing terms.

I guess you could compensate with extremely wide handlebars, but then you would look even more ridiculous while riding one.

My two biggest fears with regard to e-scooters, and what most puts me off riding them, is what happens when you hit a pothole, and what happens when you need to stop quickly.

This reminds me, I ought to dust off the Sinclair A-Bike and go for a ride....    What a most ridiculous thing I ever bought.

[Kim]

My two biggest fears with regard to e-scooters, and what most puts me off riding them, is what happens when you hit a pothole, and what happens when you need to stop quickly.

I tried the Voi one on assorted small holes, dropped kerb transitions and tramlines, and it coped surprisingly well.  I expect an unanticipated real pothole would be disastrous.  But then they can be just as disastrous on larger wheels, and at least a solid tyre won't suffer a blowout.  I don't think this makes them that much less practical than a 16" wheeled folding bike, where you also have to be pretty cautious about surfaces.

You can't stop quickly, so tipping over doesn't seem to be the problem it looks like it might be.  On the other hand, you can't stop quickly.  Which means they're unsuitable for use around wandering pedestrians (this is my biggest concern - the Voi scooters seem to be better equipped brake-wise than a lot of the privately-owned ones, and they don't go that fast anyway).  The braking seems fine on the road, where I found lack of acceleration to be a greater issue.  You can't performatively give it full beans to get across a junction the way [some of us] can on a bicycle.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Yeah, I was surprised to find myself out-accelerating one from the lights yesterday. It seems you can't just open the throttle and go, you have to give them a leg-kick to get moving. OTOH, they're definitely faster than me up hill.

[Kim]

Even without the kick issue, the acceleration seems feeble compared to a 250W e-bike.  I suppose it would be difficult to control if it accelerated too hard.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Now Voi have given all their scooters individual registrations, there's possibility for humour, especially as they don't seem to follow any set letter-number pattern. I saw one yesterday which had the reg DUDE. Possibly someone had been at work with letraset but it looked genuine.

[rogerzilla]

In Swindon, they would rapidly be changed to words like CUNT and PEDO.

[Beardy]

Having spent the weekend in THAT LONDON I find myself attracted to the idea of an electric scooter. I’m not entirely sure however, that a scooter exists with sufficient oomph to drag my bulk up the reasonably modest hill from town and I know that if such does exist it will do little to help in the ongoing battle to reduce said bulk.

[Cudzoziemiec]

And yesterday I noticed YES6.

[rogerzilla]

Apparently muggers in That London have switched to e-scooters for a more silent approach.  I noticed that the teenage, hoodie-clad, masked drug couriers of central Swindon are now using (probably stolen) e-bikes rather than their previous MTBs.

[andrewc]

https://twitter.com/BBCNWT/status/1425397242026995716?s=20


More than a thousand e-scooter riders in Liverpool have been banned for 7 days because of dangerous or anti-social driving. The firm running the city's trial, Voi, says it is also imposing £25 fines on riders who abandon the machines instead of returning them to  parking bays.

[Kim]

More than a thousand e-scooter riders in Liverpool have been banned for 7 days because of dangerous or anti-social driving.

Sounds good.  Can we do the same to other motorists?

[Cudzoziemiec]

E-scooters walk on water. Well, sort of.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-dorset-58282106

[graculus]

Does not clarify if this was a trial scooter or not, not that it matters!:

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/uk-news/2021/08/27/drunk-e-scooter-rider-stopped-by-police-while-using-motorway-to-get-home/

[Kim]

Does not clarify if this was a trial scooter or not, not that it matters!:

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/uk-news/2021/08/27/drunk-e-scooter-rider-stopped-by-police-while-using-motorway-to-get-home/

The article describes it as a "private e-scooter", so not one of the Voi ones.

Note that he's diligently sticking to the middle lane.  Denizens of Middle Earth will be aware that that's the one with the "no motorcycles" signs^[1] on the overhead gantries.


_{[1] On account of the gully down the middle of the road in places, which is hazardous to two-wheelers.}

[Cudzoziemiec]

On five occasions, that article refers to the scooterist as "the/a male". Someone keep Quixoticgeek away!

[quixoticgeek]

On five occasions, that article refers to the scooterist as "the/a male". Someone keep Quixoticgeek away!

MAN! The word you're looking for is MAN!

J

[Cudzoziemiec]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarggggggggggh! Who let you in here so quickly? You obviously have extremely sensitive Ferengi-dar!

[quixoticgeek]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarggggggggggh! Who let you in here so quickly? You obviously have extremely sensitive Ferengi-dar!

I aim to please!

J

[Kim]

On five occasions, that article refers to the scooterist as "the/a male". Someone keep Quixoticgeek away!

Clearly a police-ism in this context.  Presumably they're regurgitating a press release.

(Makes me wonder where that police-ism originated.  Possibly a deliberate avoidance of using 'man' or 'woman' to describe people who may be under 18?)