Bikes, bikes, bikes and more...bikes

[Sigmetnow]

Hope scooters are close enough for this thread.
 
Opinion Paris’s scooter ban will have unforeseen consequences

PARIS — In “Full Time,” a French movie released this year in the United States, the main character is tormented by paralysis — not her own, but Paris’s. The grand French capital and its much less grand suburbs are gripped by strikes that play havoc with public transit and turn roadways into oceans of idling cars. Julie, the young working mother at the center of the action, sprints through streets, thumbs rides on highways and squeezes into packed buses, but still she is delayed, deflated and defeated. Immobility bears down on her like France’s famous high-speed train, the TGV. (Not that it’s moving, either.)

If only she’d hopped on a rental scooter! Paris has had thousands of them for the past five years, and, man, do they move. Even with a top speed of 12 mph, they zip along streets and sidewalks, startling pedestrians and, all too often, colliding with them. As I was crossing the street near the Place de la Bastille the other day, one streaked out of nowhere and passed in a blur maybe six inches from me. I felt like tumbleweed set spinning in a Road Runner cartoon.

Plenty of Parisians have had similarly close calls, or worse, which partly explains the one-sided results in a referendum this weekend. Nearly 90 percent of voters in the city said “non” to the 15,000 rentable scooters that are a godsend for young people and tourists but a scourge to many of the elderly. Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist mayor of Paris, immediately said they would all be banished by Sept. 1, the date on which the city’s contracts expire with three rental scooter companies.

It didn’t take a public opinion guru to guess the referendum’s outcome. At a polling place across the street from the Panthéon, where I went to take a look at the action on Sunday, the average age of the voters waiting in line was probably north of 60. It’s exactly the demographic that fears the scooters most and uses them least. Young people were nowhere to be seen.

In fact, not many Parisians of any age bothered to cast a ballot — turnout was less than 8 percent of the city’s 1.3 million registered voters. But the lopsided outcome reflected an age disconnect in a city, like many in Europe, that skews old, rich and unaffordable.

Roughly half of Paris’s 2.1 million people are older than 40, and as the city’s population has largely contracted for several decades, the only age cohort that has grown much lately is over 60. In the sprawling suburbs, which are racially and ethnically diverse (and cheaper to live in), younger people are more in evidence. But suburbanites were barred from voting in the referendum. Online voting, which might have tempted more younger Parisians to cast a ballot, was also not allowed.

Paris is already a playground for the rich. The problem with banning rental scooters is that they are a convenient, app-managed, affordable way of getting around town, and getting to work, for people who can’t afford to own a car or, for that matter, their own scooter. (Private scooters were unaffected by the referendum.)

Sure, there are other ways of getting around town — the subway (when strikes don’t interfere with service), bikes, mopeds. But none combines the handiness and speed of scooters at a similar bargain price. Young people, said Sylvain Maillard, a lawmaker in the National Assembly who represents Paris, “are the big losers in this binary vote organized by a municipality which has decided to pit one generation against another.”

Paris is the biggest city to ban the scooters, but not the only one. Parts of metropolitan Atlanta have done so, as did Montreal and, for a year or so, Copenhagen. The impulse is understandable. Not only were hundreds of people injured and several dozen killed in French accidents involving scooters last year, but the collateral damage to Parisian elegance — scooters strewn across sidewalks, scooters lying in the gutter, scooters tossed in the Seine — was a regular topic of dinner table tut-tutting.

Still, something important will be lost when the city’s rental scooters are gone. A device that made this gorgeous, glamorous city a little more user-friendly for many people who often just feel stuck will disappear. And older Parisians, in trying to protect a glorious old place they love, along with themselves, might be doing more harm than they realize. By taking away scooters, they may also be putting the squeeze on the very thing that gives any city its juice and spirit of reinvention: young people, in all their rowdy, racing recklessness. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/05/paris-scooter-ban-vote-age/

[kassy]

That is a bit of a simplistic take. I bet people would be more ok with if it was less messy. Paris also has little dedicated cycling lanes which is where they should put them.

We do have them so we have no problem with foot and cycling traffic interfering. The big problem with these programs is that you can leave the bike anywhere so people do that. And then someone has to service the batteries or return bikes to better locations.

[Sigmetnow]

I agree, dedicated cycling lanes make a big difference.  And the article points out the ageism involved in the Paris decision — the younger crowd benefits from scooters and loves them.

But beyond the the conflicts with pedestrians, and the difficulty of installing bike lanes… powered vehicles often do not respect them, particularly in cities.  I’m thinking of videos I’ve see from New York; and a recent one from London, where a truck pulling over to off-load almost hit a cyclist while it purposely ran over tall obstacles installed to keep vehicles out of that section of the bike lane.  Yikes.

[Bruce Steele]

Being kinda old myself I walked into an crosswalk where a Tesla almost hit me . I think part of the problem is e-bikes, bicycles or BEV are so quiet you just don’t know they are coming. Especially from behind. There should be some sort of noise they make to help pedestrians know when an otherwise soundless object is approaching. I know cities don’t need more noise so maybe at least BEV could initiate some sort of noise when pedestrians are nearby.
 The Tesla that almost got me was making a right turn as the signal turned green but the green pedestrian signal turned at the same time . I didn’t hear the Tesla and started to take a step into the intersection crosswalk. When I was younger I carried a skateboard so i could retaliate if needed.
 I think the pace of city life leaves pedestrians in worse risk than thirty or forty years ago and the same rudeness that fills the internet also permeates driving habits. I am happier living in the country where I can ignore it all.

[kassy]

For city management: the younger crowd benefits from scooters and loves them.

If you live locally you have your own scooters. The problem is that these are used by visitors.
Ideally you would want the bulk to end up in area´s where people pick them up again. So near stations but what do you do for the one way trips?

And of course you need space on areas where they congregate. Plus the ones with batteries need servicing. It´s hard to do efficiently.

I don´t really care about the ageism angle (it´s France). Dedicated and respected bike lanes help but the young ones will bring their own gadgets. Battery powered skateboards exist and they will overtake you uphill.

[Sigmetnow]

Being kinda old myself I walked into an crosswalk where a Tesla almost hit me . I think part of the problem is e-bikes, bicycles or BEV are so quiet you just don’t know they are coming. Especially from behind. There should be some sort of noise they make to help pedestrians know when an otherwise soundless object is approaching. I know cities don’t need more noise so maybe at least BEV could initiate some sort of noise when pedestrians are nearby.
 The Tesla that almost got me was making a right turn as the signal turned green but the green pedestrian signal turned at the same time . I didn’t hear the Tesla and started to take a step into the intersection crosswalk. When I was younger I carried a skateboard so i could retaliate if needed.
 I think the pace of city life leaves pedestrians in worse risk than thirty or forty years ago and the same rudeness that fills the internet also permeates driving habits. I am happier living in the country where I can ignore it all.

Some countries, including the US, have regulations that EVs must emit sounds at low speeds, for pedestrian (and cyclist or scooterist ) protection. I definitely hear mine when I’m standing outside the car using Summon.

The Pedestrian Warning System (if equipped) causes Model Y to emit sound when driving below 19 mph (32 km/h) or while driving in reverse. Electric vehicles operate quietly and this sound helps to alert pedestrians of your oncoming vehicle. The sound, which activates whenever Model Y is shifted out of Park, gets louder as speed increases.
NOTE: The Pedestrian Warning System is not available in vehicles manufactured prior to September 1, 2020.

[oren]

If you live locally you have your own scooters. The problem is that these are used by visitors.

From my experience that is not true. Owning a scooter is suitable for people who have a regular commute, and even then only for those who can afford the space in both office and home for the scooter. People who go from place to place in a semi-random pattern, mostly young people, or who commute to locations where storing a scooter safely is a hassle, are heavy users of rented scooters.

[kassy]

https://www.nu.nl/economie/6277395/fatbikes-worden-om-de-haverklap-gestolen-anwb-stopt-met-verzekeren.html

So fatbikes (the Ebikes with the big wheels so scooters trying to pose as bikes) are getting stolen so much the ANWB is cancelling insurance on them for all policy holders in NL. They are also easy to hot rod which then cancels the policy if you are in an accident but handling that costs money too.

In general we should diversify bikes by tire size because these are not bikes.

[Sigmetnow]

In China, hundreds of thousands of bicycles have been discarded in the fight for dominance over the bike-sharing market, generating huge graveyards sites across the country.
 
This is one seen from above.
 
➡️ pic.twitter.com/MBaTGTCFCA  17 sec drone view. 😳

Makes these previous images of bike piles look like nothing! ⬇️
 
https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,2952.msg382443.html#msg382443
 
https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php/topic,2952.msg382457.html#msg382457