Posted on 08/09/2021 12:17:38 PM PDT by grundle
I live in a newly hip city in the US. Last year a few scooter companies started leaving their dock less electric scooters around town. It wasn’t so bad at first, even pretty neat. But they kept bringing more and more, and now it’s completely out of hand. They are everywhere! The downtown area is clogged with them and people just leave them on the street, zoom past on the sidewalk and kids trash them and leave their mangled wrecks all over parks.
I live in a house that has been converted into apartments. There are 6 people including myself who live here, and we all share a small garage. Only two of the residents have cars and they park them in the garage, the rest of us store out bikes in there. After the scooter scourge started, we noticed people had been leaving the scooters in front of the garage door, obstructing the car owners from entering and exiting. No big deal, we would just move them to the side and go about our business.
But then it started happening every day. I would get home to 4 or 5 scooters left in the driveway every day. I asked around, and none of us in the house ever used the scooters or parked them in the driveway. After a neighbor accidentally ran one over backing out of the garage (it had fallen down and she didn’t see it) we put up a sign stating “no scooter parking” but it did nothing. Someone even vandalized it with some unsavory terms. I contacted a few of the scooter companies and tried to figure out a way to prevent people from leaving the scooters in our driveway, and they directed us to an online form to report illegally parked scooters which involves a QR code scan and filling out a report, which is time consuming, and useless since nobody comes to get the scooters for hours or even days later, not to mention that we had been doing this for weeks anyway. Thanks for nothing!
So now what we all do when we see a scooter on our property is pick it up and take it to our dumpster and toss it right in. All 6 of us have to do this every day. Recently a note was attached to our dumpster by one of the scooter chargers (they are contracted “employees” kind of like Uber or DoorDash who get paid pennies to collect and charge these scooters) saying that we had to stop throwing the scooters in the dumpster because it was hazardous and they were sick of climbing thought the trash to get them. Fair enough. We compromised by leaving the scooters next to the dumpster. Sometimes the trash guys pick them up and take them to the dump. I called the waste management and they told us they sort it and process hundreds of trashed scooters so it was no big deal for them.
Am I an asshole for tossing illegally parked scooters in the trash? They make a terrible screaming beeping sound when I move them and I feel like I’m not doing anything but trying to make a point that no one cares about.
You could have them towed, and it would cost the scooter company a bundle................. It would stop in a day...........
It is a way to communicate to the scooter companies that allowing their customers to leave scooters around on other people’s property, is not a viable long-term business model.
No, keep tossing but make sure you lift with your legs and not your back.
Am I an asshole for tossing illegally parked scooters in the trash?
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No. I swore that if one more scooter was left on the sidewalk on the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis, that I would throw the scooter into the Mississippi.
Lucky for the scooter company, George Floyd was murdered and the riots. I haven’t been walking in Mpls since then.
Oh yea, on Riverside they are lined up like dead soldiers all over the place.
In one Eastern city (overrun by stupid rental bikes) the natives just started dumping them in the river—by the dozens.
Eventually the bike company got the message and fled town...
Get a big hammer and smash the batteries for a great bonfire.
If he called the company first and gave them a few days to comply, then, no.
I wonder if there is an business opportunity. I will pick up the abandoned scooters on your property (perhaps for a small subscription fee), collect them, and sell them back to the company at a discount.
Maybe a side gig???
How is the scooter company going to stop it even if it wanted to? The only way seems to be cut losses and close up shop.
They need to have self-driving scooters which go home autonomously.
Or you could notify the company that any scooters parked illegally on your property will be impounded ($50/day) and will not be released without payment in full (cash).
That will stop it pretty quick and maybe make you some fast cash.
Yes, you are an asshole for destroying property not your own. None of that - you will damage yourself psychologically. OK to move them next to the dumpster.
NO, next time, cut them up and sell them for scrap metal
I live in Santa Monica, where the scooter craze apparently started about two years ago. Both the scooters and the riders are a menace. They love to ride wherever they aren’t supposed to and they tend not to obey even basic rules of the road - such as stop signs. They are a little less prevalent now than before with the operating companies doing a slightly better job of picking them up and staging them. That said, I still don’t like them. Cyclists are bad enough.
You know, I wonder:
Say you hurt your back tossing the scooter into the dumpster, wouldn’t the scooter company be liable?
They’re the ones with deep pockets after all.
I doubt any towing company would give this issue the time of day.
If the Scooter company doesn’t care if their scooters are trashed, stolen or thrown away - they surely wouldn’t pay a towing company to release them.
Dear hipster writer, one error in your story about the scooter companies started leaving scooters all over the place. It’s not the scooter companies, it’s their customers! You know fellow hipsters who do not own anything, thus feel no responsibility for anything! Dude it’s someone else responsibility to clean up the scooters, maybe there should be a law…. That will make someone responsible! There can be a new fully funded Federal Agency of Responsibility! Of course they will micro manage your life…….. Dude let me give you a four letter word…. Ready? WORK!
This explains why we are seeing these things around our town and often being driven/ridden by those over age 50.
The riders/drivers want to ride on sidewalks and endanger walkers as well as themselves.
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