BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

As someone that makes a living out of seeing the future, I think electric bikes/shooters and anything with  a batter will overwhelm our bike ways.   I think people pedaling will be in the minority.  This is the beginning.  That is how I see it.  I like to pedal.  Seems I am running into people that like to press a button to move.   Yep.

Neat! Do you read palms or tarot cards or something else?

What do you mean by "overwhelm"?  As long as they are following trail etiquette (staying to the right, warning to pass, not speeding, etc.) and the motors are quiet with no exhaust, then I don't care how they're powered. If they make the trails more crowded, then I think the increase of usage would be a good argument for widening them, maintaining them better, and adding more trails.

And obviously, leaving unattended scooters blocking a bike lane is a pretty bad breach of bike lane/trail etiquette.  If the scooter company's plan is to just let people leave them all over the bike lanes, trails or sidewalks, then I don't understand why the city would permit that.

Let's hope Pittsburgh doesn't get a lot of scooters in the middle of bike lanes and bike trails, like this: https://twitter.com/paulheckbert/status/1420195057601294336 But without penalties for violators, it's going to happen here, too.

A scooter parked in the canal would not be likely to interfere with bicycle traffic at all.

People are jackasses first, mode of transportation second. We have stupid drivers, we have stupid cyclists, we have stupid pedestrians, and certainly now also stupid scooter users. Maybe the scooter rentals should come equipped with a bit of verbiage: How Not To Be A Jackass When Using Your Scooter

1. When you share a sidewalk with people, don't hit them or pass closely enough to scare them.
2. When you have to go out into the street, look before you cross into a travel lane so you don't either get hit or hit anyone else.
3. When you park it, make sure it is not blocking the travel path.

Seems simple enough, anyway. I haven't rented one myself yet, so maybe they're already saying this.

I tried one. On a first ride, I took a SPIN scooter up some steep hills and the machine slowed to a pathetic 3 mph. On my 26 minute, 2 mile trip, my scooter ran out of power and I had to walk a mile to finish my trip. On the positive side, you can pick them up and drop them off almost anywhere (within city limits) since you needn't start and stop at a station, and they are powered. On the negative side, at $23/hr, they're a lot more expensive than HealthyRide bicycles ($4/hr), their batteries can run out on you, there are forbidden zones such as certain parks and if you ride near a forbidden zone, minor GPS errors can cause the scooter to think you're breaking the rules, causing the machine to squawk at you and lose power. The display screen on the scooter shows speed and battery level, but it didn't explain the squawks I was hearing. To understand them I had to stop, pull out my smartphone, and look at the SPIN app. It would be risky to do that while driving the scooter. If using a scooter again, I would only use one if its battery level was high, for a short trip, and if I could be confident that the machine could get me up to a reasonable speed, say 10mph.

This video shows well what can happen to people stepping off a bus if e-scooters are speeding by nearby. From Auckland, NZ. Perhaps of interest. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/auckland-council-sued-in-high-court-again-e-scooters-endanger-and-intimidate-pedestrians/L7VJVHOAF4JKU4FBEWXONEIGYU/

I tried one. A 13-minute trip from the Wood St T station to Forbes at Stevenson by Duquesne U, cost $5.42. It didn't take a whole lot to figure out how to make it go, though it took some getting used to. It's bumpy, far moreso than on a bike, and you have no real way to carry anything not in a backpack. I'm not impressed. I could have made the same trip by HealthyRide for zero cost, since my ConnectCard gets me 15 minutes free, and I likely could've done it in less than 13 minutes since the scooter never got me over 10 mph. I'm not much of a runner, but I bet I could have jogged that in about 20 minutes for nothing.

OP here, I wanted to chime in in support a little bit- 1. I figured out the transit hubs. If you park a scooter there you get a discount (makes sense, encourages people to charge) and it either now or soon will allow non-smartphone users to access the fleet 2. The scooters are more convenient than healthyride because they’re truly everywhere. Ive been tempted to take one just a few blocks to make a small errand less tedious. 3. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I have a huge problem checking out healthyrides. Sometimes only my connect card works, sometimes a smartphone, sometimes neither. I’m know other non-regular healthyride users that have similar problems. These scooters are very easy to figure out and very easy to check out. 4. they seem to be taking misparked scooters seriously and I don’t see it happening often anymore   if healthyride were easier to use and more expansive (like the Motivate bikes in NYC/SFBay/Columbus) I think more people would use them. Since they aren’t, these scooters seem to fill the void.

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/politics-local/2021/09/07/Pittsburgh-to-consider-traffic-rules-for-electric-scooters-Spin/stories/202109070093  

Well it seems people are seeing the future.  So many fat people in the US.  Do we need "scooters"?  How about doing some pedaling.  Goodness can we get more lazy and fat?

@gg I don't appreciate the fatphobic language - fat-shaming is unnecessary and unwelcome. Feel free to edit your post, and I will delete mine. (I can't find a way to DM this to you, apologies for posting publicly.)

SPIN scooter use is expensive.  Stu and Paul show they are of questionable worth.    They are popular right now, but that could fade fast. Much of what I see in Oakland are obviously novelty rides "Hey! Let's try that!" Scoobi, the Vesta-like street scooters, were used an awful lot when they first came out, but not so much now.   I like the Scoobies better.

The HealthyRides have been around six or seven years now, and their use is expanding. Maybe we need both, but I definitely have my preference.

Then new proposed regulations would limit scooters to roads with a speedlimit of 25mph or less (unlike state rules suggesting 35 mph roads for scooters).  This seems to me to be a dangerous development, perhaps leading to limiting bicycles that way as well. http://otma-pgh.org/news/smart-commute/city-council-introduces-legislation-regulate-e-scooter-operation-pittsburgh

A 35 mph speed limit essentially means there's no speed limit. Examples: West Carson, West Liberty, formerly Liberty through the Strip and Bloomfield, Baum Blvd, Bigelow out of downtown, Saw Mill Run Blvd, East St, and I haven't even half tried to come up with a complete list. They're all 45+ mph traffic sewers with no enforcement, ever, and every motorist knows that.

I still use some of those roads.

Sorry narminsamii, I cannot.  We have a huge problem with obesity in our country and I battle weight issues myself.  For health of us all we need to be more active.  I cannot edit my post as I feel people should be more active.  Living in the real world can be harder than kicking a can down the road.  I do think most should bicycle more.  Our health is important. 

I'm told that the state law on bikes cannot be overridden by the county, so that there's no chance the scooter restrictions would be applied.

Article about Spin’s special rules & arrangements in Pittsburgh:

• no other PA city has scooter share
• Spin is only scooter share company in Pgh
• scooters get recharged by Spin employees, not gig workers
• in Downtown, parking allowed in scooter parking hubs (charging stations or painted areas) only

https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/spin-e-scooter-head-talks-parking-enforcement-and-what-sets-pittsburghs-rollout-apart/Content?oid=20317881

was following a drunk girl on one of those rentel scooters friday night i stayed back far from her to give her room good thing i did she hit a manhole cover and wiped out on 5th ave right past bigelow blvd