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Comment by FeistySkink | Hacker News Reader

I hope this becomes EU-wide. Every season it seems like there's a new generation that discovers and abuses them to no end, endangering everybody around.

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Maybe there's other ways of improving the service without outright banning it. I would be surprised if there has not been a lot of innovations that caused a lot of accidents and endangered a lot of people that have been properly regulated and improved without just saying "this is a menace, let's ban it!". I personaly have enjoyed riding around on scooters along many cities in Europe including my own and would support improvements if stats really show they are very dangerous (couldn't find very supportive data for that at least in my city), but I still believe it would be very shortsighted if the solution is just "ban them" because some people don't like this change.

As someone who regularly uses them I would be very sad if they were banned. It is a very convienient mode of transport and can often cut journey times in half for me compared to public transport. I also ride a bike but I don't always have it with me, or want to lock up my bike somewhere overnight and risk having it stolen.

I think it would be unfair to punish responsable users because of a few bad apples. Half of the people leaving them in the sidewalk aren't even the users themselves, but frustrated vigilantes who see them as a symbol of capitalism gone wrong and who want to vandalise them.

Maybe some actual enforcement of cycling rules is needed, but outright banning is draconian and unnecesarry.

Paris has a pretty good shared bike service, there is no need for a personal bike.

1) Save money

2) Having a choice in what bike you want to ride

>there is no need for a personal bike.

Ah, are we extending the "no one needs an x" to personal bicycles now? What's next, shared spoons?

Paris used to have a pretty good shared bike service until the current mayor decided to change operator. Now it’s terrible.

Nah, I live in Barcelona where it's very hot and humid and there are a lot of hills.

This makes bikes not really usable in much of the city due to the hills and the alternatives to e-scooters are petrol scooters or motorbikes which cause much more noise and pollution.

Just in case, I was talking about shared scooters and not personal ones.

We were not meant to go more than 3 mph and live in tiny 300 person communities. The sooner we ban ALL these dangerous non-walking forms of transportation (and stop the insanity that is mobility scooters being able to go over 5mph!) the better.

I like that they exist, but I think there are way too many companies competing.

I would rather see the EU:

    1. require that they cooperate on one app to use to rent them, and require that all scooters in any EU city work with that app
    2. require the use of helmets
    3. require designated parking areas (this could maybe be a city by city choice I guess)

I fully expect that if such rules were enforced, many of the companies would likely just choose to move their operation elsewhere. I'm fine with this, dumping scooters on the streets because there are no laws saying they can't is a vile approach to business.

I think those ideas are great for increasing usage, safety and public orderly. Although I would disagree that this should be something dealt at the EU level. It would definitely be great for all EU cities to work within the same framework and allow me to use a single app between cities, but I do not think EU should be meddling with such regulations. In my opinion, this should be left for each country (even each city/municipality) to decide. Citizens of countries and even the cities themselves - as most cities do not have e-scooters - should be able to have a say on how to run their respective territories without the EU imposing regulations left and right.

Cars are far more dangerous, no?

Yea, but we're used to that danger. In fact, we're trained to deal with that danger from being a few years old. E-scooters are a new danger that while far less dangerous is far more annoying because we're not used to it.

I'm happy to ban those, at least in city centers.

I'd be quite happy to ban all commuter cars from cities. And then use the space reclaimed for scooters and bikes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism

On a per mile basis, likely not.

Cars have a dedicated space. Most cities don't have a dedicated bicycle infrastructure, or at least not enough and not well connected, so scooters are forced to share pedestrian paths. And, again, people treat them like somebody-else's property and misbehave, for which there are no consequences.

Also in Europe most countries require you to attend some driving school, pass a test that's not a joke and abide to the traffic regulations.

Neither of this applies to the scooter riders and it shows.

Do people often park 5 cars between you and your door so that you have to walk over them to go inside?

Didn't think so.

Cars take up more physical space, require public infrastructure that takes up significant taxpayer funding, tie up policing resources that take taxpayer funding, pollute noxious gas and sound that actively damage my health, contribute to global warming, and they are a lethal risk to others not just an "ouch you broke my leg by hitting into me" risk. There is no comparison.

Scooters require infrastructure too… unless you think that piling them up on sidewalks is the way forward…

It's a matter of degree. Sometimes things are worse than other things without that other thing being perfect.

Yes, which is why Paris is also addressing that problem. The French can walk and chew gum at the same time.

> Every season it seems like there's a new generation that discovers and abuses them to no end, endangering everybody around.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September in meatspace.

Myspace went the other way around: spray paint was invented first.

I can’t wait for Berlin to ban them. Especially knowing the foolish VC economics that are behind this trend.

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