Reply to Cities starting to ban scooters. DC to follow?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The conversation can't not be about cars, because cars are the reason for sidewalks, and pedestrians on the sidewalk, and bicyclists on the sidewalk, and e-scooters on the sidewalk, in the first place. It's not car hatred, it's just history.

Plus, from the point of view of people walking on the sidewalk, I honestly don't perceive a difference between people using a scooter on the sidewalk or people using a bicycle on the sidewalk.[/quote]

Well we are not changing the current arrangements of streets and sidewalks today, so we have to be able to have a conversation about scooters on sidewalks under the current set-up which is where pedestrians are completely restricted to the sidewalk (unsafe to be anywhere else). That's why the scooter bans. If pedestrians can only walk in one place, that place should be safe for them, and many pedestrians do not feel safe with scooters on the sidewalk.

And yes, scooters and bikes on the sidewalk are about equivalent. Again, since this is the ONLY place pedestrians can safely walk, neither scooters nor bikes should be given preference. I bike quite a bit in DC and I never bike down the sidewalk because it's not safe for pedestrians (also while technically you are allowed I do think you could be cited for this if you hurt someone -- I think you are only allowed on the sidewalk if there is no way for you to safely move down the street). If I have to take my bike on a sidewalk, I walk it. It sucks there are not more bike lanes in DC and also that so many cars in DC make biking here more dangerous than it should be. But that doesn't mean that I should get to speed down a sidewalk on my bike and force pedestrians to leap out of the way. I simply plan my routes to take advantage of bike lanes or to utilize streets that are safer for bikes.

The same should be true of scooters. They do not belong on sidewalks where pedestrians are. If a pedestrian has to jump out of the way, or might have to grab a small child and pull them out of your way, then you are going too fast on the sidewalk. Scooters are too fast for the sidewalk.[/quote]

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