Support CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe. I’ll be honest — I’ve never really loved the standup-scooter trend for vehicle-sharing programs in cities. I think they are fine for light, commercial recreation and for last-mile transport for some people. But they are quite unstable, tiny, and so ... [continued]
The problems with these are:
They’re basically a motorcycle in non-motor spaces, which creates major safety problems. We have the same problem with “fatbike” ebikes in the Netherlands, where they’re super chunky and being driven by novices (youth) who create risk to others.
It’s nice to have alternatives to driving, but these are pretty poor alternatives. Also, they tend to only exist in tourist areas and tourist cities, meaning they aren’t actually useful for residents.
Why are they booing you, you’re right!
I’m not against ebikes in general. In the US designation, Class I and Class II are fine. It’s the big, hefty fat bikes. And most of the pickup rentals have to be that style for the batteries to hold up all day.
The ebikes have been horrible in my town this year, probably half of them at this point have been modified to sound like motorcycles… Seriously, they’re just as loud. And I swear to god packs of kids will ride around with these things like a motorcycle gang. It’s kinda funny when I see them about, but I can’t say it’ll stay that way.
Good to know that emotos are a global catastrophe…