The five biggest Dutch cities are urging the government to let them ban fatbikes, e-scooters and other motor-powered vehicles from cycle lanes to prevent “total chaos,” the Telegraaf reported on Wednesday. “Cycle lanes should be a safe place for all cyclists, not just the biggest, strongest and fastest,” the cities’ transport chiefs said in a joint statement to parliament’s infrastructure committee, which is debating road safety on Thursday. Local authorities have long warned that cycle lanes are overloaded and were...
Oh I know there are some who have smarts and ride them with caution and protection. It’s the jackasses for sure that have tainted my view on them. I see a lot of idiots where I am zipping around not caring about those around them.
It’s because there’s almost no barrier to entry. Unlike a bike, which requires years of riding to even get fit enough to sustain high speed, anyone can get on an e-scooter and go as fast as the max speed allows. Provided they stay balanced, there’s nothing else to it. And that’s problematic when you’ve got a rider who lacks experience or simply doesn’t care about others.
But the way I see it, these same people would be jackasses in cars, so even though it’s awful, it’s like the lesser of two evils.
I’m not even sure how society can solve this problem without heavy regulation (which doesn’t impact those who are willing to be jackasses), heavy restrictions (see previous point), or forcing people to drive large vehicles because it’s more convenient.
There’s currently no legal mechanism to punish offenders, so everyone gets shafted.
I’d like to add to this thread (coz I rarely see this mentioned.) The rental scooter system encourages shitty riding. I only recently tried it on vacation for convenience and you pay per minute, not distance. And it’s kinda expensive. So users are financially motivated to run risks (speed, cut traffic, run reds etc.) in order to save money. I was pretty horrified to find this out, but it made sense of all the shitty riding I had seen prior.