As annoying as some escooter users are, I don't think this is the best solution. Far more idiots cause deaths in cars, no calls to ban those.
There's no e-scooter dealership lobby to protect them
no calls to ban those
๐
I would be in favour of banning them in the city.
But a complete car ban? That won't have popular support in the near future.
Yeah I was exaggerating for effect. I wouldn't actually call for banning them even in the city. Congestion charges to strongly discourage it, sure, along with pedestrianising large parts and designing for cyclists first with cars only as "guests" in other parts, but not an outright ban.
It doesn't appear to be a ban, so much as a suspension. Which seems totally reasonable when new technology is involved in a death.
Cars are regulated, with minimum safety requirements, and drivers are required to undergo (minimal) training. I'm not sure what's appropriate for e-scooters, but similar requirements could be reasonable.
Which seems totally reasonable when new technology is involved in a death
When cars were a new technology that resulted in deaths, the response was kicking people out of their own streets and giving over the space exclusively to the death machines.
Sure that might be the case but we shouldn't be basing our response now on how they responded over 100 years ago. If cars only began to appear a few years ago we'd be looking at a similar suspension.
A temporary suspension to give time for regulations to be made to minimise accidents and increase safety is a good idea. Hopefully they'll be able to talk to the e-scooter companies to look at things like speed caps in pedestrian areas.
Scooters are already quite regulated. Max speed 25kph (not allowed to be capable of more than that on level ground) Max weight 25kg Max size 125 by 70 by135 cm
https://www.wa.gov.au/organisation/road-safety-commission/erideables The hire ones are all compliant with the regulations.
The hire ones also have GPS in them that is used to determine when they are in pedestrian areas where the speed gets limited to 10kph automatically. Probably not the greatest on narrow streets.
we really are crying out to make car lanes smaller and expand bike lanes into full size car lanes so that people/bikes/scooters/hover boards/"whatever else we think of" can go in them
With that said even in the best places the competition between people and bikes/scooters seems to be the same story
Well, cars have to go on the road, you need a license, and you follow rules and signs. It's sad that everyone has to pay for the misdeeds of some idiots, but I've had far more incidents with scooters than with cars.
Doubt taxis have ever been suspended for killing pedestrians.
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