Scoot Along

4 Things an Unexpected Debate About Electric Scooters Tells Us About Cities Today

Remember Razor scooters? I had one with one blue wheel and one green wheel. I landed a tailwhip a couple times and could do a 360, if a 270 counts. But I did teach a couple kids in my neighborhood the trick of standing on the back brake and jumping up and down as if it were a pogo-stick.

Early this decade, living in the Bay Area, I started to notice commuters with folded scooters on BART. These grown-ass men and women were carrying rugged versions of the old Razor I loved. It was a way of solving the last-mile problem in transit connectivity: the scooter was faster and easier than walking. Years later, those nerds seem to have won again, with the appearance of shared, electric scooters on the streets of American cities.

When I set up this survey, to be honest, I didn’t think ahead much. I’d been interested in whether one should ride a scooter on the road or on the sidewalk. My intuitive feeling was the sidewalk, but I didn’t have a great reason why. Mostly I missed Razor scooters.

People haven’t necessarily used scooters yet, but most are open to the idea. Only a third of respondents have used them, but half say they will, and another quarter are open to the idea.

But there’s a clear hurdle: No one quite knows where they’re supposed to ride the scooters. I’m not the only one who thinks they’re in a sort of reverse-Goldilocks trap. They’re “disruptive to pedestrians” but liable to get in the way on the road. Almost half of respondents said they would ride scooters in the street or bike lane, but more than a third said the sidewalk, and a significant portion responded with an answer that embraced ambiguity, such as “both, depending on the environment.”

These concerns are borne out by some testimony: “People who ride scooters on the sidewalk create temporary chaos for the walking towards them. I don’t know if the user is suddenly going to hit me, which side they will pass me on etc. I’m 24 and have these concerns, I can’t imagine how elderly folk feel.”

So, is the road better? Plenty of respondents—both bikers and drivers—felt otherwise. “If you fools ride those scooters in the bike lanes while I am trying to get where I am going I will RUN YOU DOWN.” It’s not only the drivers who feel concern: One scooter rider said, “I felt like I was in the way of cyclists. Also since they are smaller, I feel that cars are not as aware of the presence of scooter-riders.”

In general, “Folks have no idea where they can and can’t go and just end up in the way.” Ah. If only we all knew our place.

Some of the cool things about scooters:

• You can ride them with a dress on. Bikes aren’t always an option garments-wise. Scooters are less disruptive that way. You’re literally just standing on it.
• Fun. This was the most common write-in reason for why people ride the scooters. “Seriously, they’re a blast.”
• Cheap. Rides are only $1, cheaper than $2 bike or bus, and much less than a rideshare. (Note: Several people rebutted this; I think it’s really more that it’s cheap if you only need to go a fairly short distance.)
• Anything other than cars is good. As Justin Gillis writes in the New York Times, cars are killing cities. Or already killed them, and the new mobility renaissance is bringing them back. (I highly recommend Ivan Ilich on this subject.) This perspective is summed up by one respondent’s answer: “Any alternative to a car is good! Safe and affordable too. Quick way to help neighborhood connectivity for those underserved by transportation options too.”

Some of the not-so-cool things about scooters:

• Scattered on the sidewalk. I don’t have as much of a problem with this as some people do, but clearly it hits a nerve: Some people really hate that scooters (and bikeshares) can be left in the sidewalk. If you see one blocking handicap access to the curb, well, move it!
• “I might look stupid on one.” “They look a bit dumb.” “Stupid.” “One automatically looks like a douchebag.” “Only reservation is people just look so goofy riding them.”
• Solving a problem that doesn’t exist. Several people used this language. I think the most interesting framing of this looked at class and who the scooters are marketed towards: “They appeal to white people wearing expensive workout clothes that are rushing back to their luxury apartments on 14th St after attending one of the too-many bourgeoisie gym classes that cost more than a scooter apiece.”
• Nobody wears a helmet. We’re glad our readers care about others’ noggins :)
• Concerns about rideability. Apparently the brakes aren’t super. “Seem unstable, less protected, and and harder to steer.” “Not stable enough to handle potential hazards on the road such as potholes.” “They seem much less safe than a bicycle. Smaller tires on crappy roads don’t mix well.”
• Finally, someone on our level: “When I was 10 I would go to the neighborhood tennis courts and pretend that I was in the Razor Scooter Olympics. I’d do routines and scoot on one foot and spin around and truly that’s my favorite thing about scooters. So now with a battery powered scooter, the gold medal is surely within my grasp.”

So, what should we take from this conversation?

1. People want better ways to get around. Even though scooters have drawbacks, a lot of people are interested in them. People want mobility that is clean, cheap, and even fun. Nobody here is crying for more cars.
2. Existing infrastructure is having a hard time adapting to disruptions in mobility. There is no good place to ride a scooter. This problem has similar origins to the difficulty with rideshare drop-offs, which can clog roads that lack a convenient turnoff. DDOT experimented with dedicated areas for dropoff in Dupont and other areas, but unless scooters rise exponentially in popularity, riders will have to make do with less-than-perfect accommodations.
3. People care about public space. There’s a notion that, if it doesn’t belong to anyone, no one cares about it. That’s the logic of enclosure and privatization. Even though people disagree about how public space, such as sidewalks, should be used, it’s clear they derive wellbeing from utilization of these spaces.
4. Technologies introduced to public space should solve public problems. It’s not clear if scooters solve a public problem, or if they are a vanity play appealing to a moneyed subset of our city. Time will tell if they can find and serve a diverse market and allay concerns that this is yet another instance of Silicon Valley solving its own problems rather than our own.

Silicon Valley Is Inserting Its Biases Into Nearly Every Technology We Use