Posted on 08/03/2019 1:02:44 PM PDT by Kaslin
If you've been in a city recently, you've probably seen people whizzing by on all kinds of electric scooters. These vehicles are strewn across sidewalks, parked outside office spaces, and seem to be the hottest form of transportation. Typically riders rent the scooters via apps from companies like Bird, Lyft, and Uber. Many who take them do so out of convenience but also believe they are more environmentally friendly versus a car a city or bus. However, a new report shows that these scooters are actually not that great for the planet.
But, Axios reports that "Electric scooters are often worse for climate change when compared to the transportation methods they’re displacing, according to what is likely the first-ever peer-reviewed study on the new trend."
Specifically, "results show that dockless e-scooters consistently result in higher life cycle global warming impacts relative to the use of a bus with high ridership, an electric bicycle, or a bicycle per passenger-mile traveled. However, choosing an e-scooter over driving a personal automobile with a fuel efficiency of 26 miles per gallon results in a near-universal decrease in global warming impacts."
The same report finds that about half the riders say they would have walked if the scooter was not there. This means that "e-scooters are the less climate-friendly option about two-thirds of the time."
"While e-scooters may be an effective solution to urban congestion and last-mile problem, they do not necessarily reduce environmental impacts from the transportation system," the report notes. This is because the scooters are picked up individuals via cars who then charge the scooters overnight.
On average, they found scooters cause 202 grams of climate pollution per mile. Because early models tended to last less than a year, their production made up half of their life-cycle impact. Daily collection for charging and redistribution with mostly gasoline-powered vehicles made up another 43%.
“While the scooters themselves don’t have tailpipes,” one researcher said, “the cars that were picking them up largely did.”
The report says that while the scooters may be changing the way we think about transportation, the new devices still have a long way to go before they are friendly for the environment.
They’re like Starbucks here, they’re at literally every corner.
Who cares?
Really, do the authors of the study really think we give a rip.
I’ve never used one, but I think the scooters are a great idea.
They also have a tendency to self-destruct by plunging into rivers and other bodies of water.
These things seem dangerous to riders and people around them. You see them being ridden fast on sidewalks and weaving around pedestrians which I thought would be against the law.
The Leftist idiots scream for the alternative, and then they thank society by leaving those damned things everywhere. They don’t own them, so they treat them like disposable units after one ride.
I’ve a location where I can observe them from, and these people delight in abusing them.
They get off them and plop the thing on the ground right there, just like they do things in their bedroom.
The renting agencies pay folks to go out, find them, charge them, and return them the next morning, sort of like a mother would.
God what a lost generation we’re raising.
Duh. Electricity needs to be generated from something, like coal or petrol. Newsflash.
These scooters are an absolute menace. They come flying up from behind you while you’re walking on the sidewalk and scare the holy crap out of you. I’ve never seen a single scooter being used for legitimate transportation. They’re used for nothing but entertainment by kids and young adults. Hopefully people will start permanently disabling the entire fleet.
They are a great idea, but the users are going to wind up getting them banned everywhere.
Some cities have already banned them.
Seeing 50 scooters within twenty yards of each other tossed on the ground is an unsightly mess.
They won’t walk five feet to place them back in a rack.
Just; SHOCKING!
Ban those effing things!
I almost got run over by one the other day.
Maybe it’s just the short-term rental business model that is defective.
They could be used in bike lanes, such as Paris and my Florida county have laid out.
I saw them in DC in May.
I also saw unused short-term rental cars and I also saw unused short-term rental bike racks with a bicycle in them.
>>These things seem dangerous to riders and people around them. You see them being ridden fast on sidewalks and weaving around pedestrians which I thought would be against the law.<<
There have been reports about pedestrians being hit and some hurt badly by scooters. Some cities here in the DFW area are thinking about pulling them.
I would see them being dropped off by guys in pickup trucks early in the morning when I took my walks. I spoke to a couple of these guys about the scooters and they said their average lifespan is short because they are damaged or no longer work with the "I don't care, it's not mine, it's rented" mentality of the users. The users have no skin in the game to take care of them.
They are dangerous because they go pretty fast with no safety equipment at all. I saw two near accidents with cars there and one accident where the rider was flipped off after hitting a curb going 30 miles an hour. He needed an ambulance called. They are a hazard to traffic and pedestrians alike. The riders don't follow traffic laws. They ran red lights frequently. And the students who rode them treat them like trash.
So at first blush, they may seem like a "good idea" but dig a little deeper and you will find bloom is off the rose and they are just another a good intentions with unintended consequences idea instead.
I would see them being dropped off by guys in pickup trucks early in the morning when I took my walks. I spoke to a couple of these guys about the scooters and they said their average lifespan is short because they are damaged or no longer work with the "I don't care, it's not mine, it's rented" mentality of the users. The users have no skin in the game to take care of them.
They are dangerous because they go pretty fast with no safety equipment at all. I saw two near accidents with cars there and one accident where the rider was flipped off after hitting a curb going 30 miles an hour. He needed an ambulance called. They are a hazard to traffic and pedestrians alike. The riders don't follow traffic laws. They ran red lights frequently. And the students who rode them treat them like trash.
So at first blush, they may seem like a "good idea" but dig a little deeper and you will find bloom is off the rose and they are just another a good intentions with unintended consequences idea instead.
I was almost one of them, they can't ban them fast enough. I literally have to walk looking behind me to see if one of them is coming.
The only thing these scooters can do is help you go up to a half mile or so from a bus stop to your place of work. They must always be an optional form of travel, since you can't guarantee that one will be waiting for you at the bus stop. If one isn't there, then you must walk. Maybe, maybe, a scooter plus a bus can replace a car for some people, but that is the only way it would save gasoline.
Sooner than later the Delusional Lying Left will come to the same conclusion they do in the movie “Kingsmen” - people are the problem so just kill them all (except for the elite and their minions).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.