Finally!
If it’s to favor bikes over scooters, that’s probably fine. If it’s to please the car lobby, that’s a sad, corrupt step back for society and democracy.
Its mainly to make space for pedestrians.
Do these scooters cause even a tiny fraction of the issues that cars do? I wonder…
Prague officials said they had acted on complaints from residents over the dangers of the scooters whizzing by on pavements or in parks, or blocking pavements or street parking spots when not in use.
As usual the issue is whiners who don’t understand the reality that scooters are going to be way less disruptive than if those people were to drive instead. No reason a scooter can’t occupy a parking space in my mind.
It usually only takes one serious incident to start a full riot on scooters. Last month there was a tragic event where one woman was killed by someone with a scooter who didn’t see her crossing. Total outrage! Ban these things immediately. There’s even a draft law in the parliament to forbid anyone riding a scooter unless they got a license of some sorts. Meanwhile, there was another accident where a guy was speeding and hit a woman on a pedestrian crossing. People were like “yeah, but maybe if she hadn’t run on that crossing, and if she made eye contact with the driver, maybe it would’ve saved her life…”
Absolutely. And to be clear I’m totally open to discussions on how to limit or reduce those few incidents that do occur. But a blanket ban across the entire city is a ridiculous response to what can only be described as minor issues in the context of the problems an entire city faces.
As someone who lives in a city center with a fair number of scooters, and as someone who never uses them (I prefer to bike) I do agree they can be a nuisance at times. But I truly don’t understand the amount of angst over them while my very life is menaced by car drivers on a daily basis.
I can only assume, as the article obliquely implies, it’s a lot of entitled drivers who just want to have sole rights to use public space and mistakenly believe that banning other ways of getting around will just magically eliminate those irresponsible people from the equation.
But I don’t live in this city so maybe I’m generalizing my own experiences here too much, I don’t know.
As a pedestrian on a pavement I have a greater issue with scooters than cars. Especially where I live there are a lot, and they don’t care about the 6km speed limit on the pavement (neither do cyclists however). Since scooters are often rental ones, they are thrown in bushes, rivers etc. Bicycles are often personal items, so they don’t get strewn around, and the rentals have specific parking spots.
Primarily the rules should be enforced better and traffic rules should be taught better/at a younger age. But I think scooters are easier to misuse than bicycles or cars. Also, motorists need formal training, while scooters can be used by people without a license. There are lot of young teenagers using them here.
Many motorists here are dicks here too though, but they mostly are only a concern when I cross a street. So I wouldn’t say less or more, but many scooterists invade a space that is reserved for pedestrians. Maybe scooters need some low entry training or something.
The problem you’re describing sounds more like an issue with space allocation. You mention that motorists are only an issue when you cross the street. Have you ever thought about the ratio of the space allocated to lanes for cars versus the space allocated to everyone else? It sounds like city planners over the years have allocated a far too large a portion of public space to cars, forcing pedestrians and scooters, among others, to compete over what’s left.
I work as a city planner, and experience this constantly. The space allocated to cars makes everyone else fight and compete over the small share that’s left, and none asks why we aren’t all demanding that space be reallocated from cars to other modes of transport instead of cramming everybody in the pedestrian pathways.
If there was space available in a separated bike lane, most scooters would likely prefer riding there instead of on the pavement. But if they have to share the space with 2 ton steel projectiles, then most take their chances with the pedestrians. It’s all a question of what a municipality chooses to prioritize when it comes to allocating public space.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all for low traffic cities.
I think it is rather other than space allocation, though. (Broad) cycling lanes are rapidly increasing, and pavements are generally broad (like roads). Space allocation could be improved upon, but I believe it far from the main cause.
Specifically for scooters, it is part behaviour and part consequence of easy access to heavy scooters. I don’t think scooters are in-and-of-themselves a problematic transport method, I think rental scooters are.
At the same time it is worth to consider the downsides of certain modes of transportation, instead of only comparing them to cars and their infrastructure. I just don’t think the discussion needs to be a what-aboutism. Especially considering the lack for some formal training, making many of the users of scooters a hazard for others and themselves.
