It seems that my current obsession with e-scooters is quite widely shared. That being why I am obsessed with them.
As of now, e-scooters are only borderline legal. In some primitive places e-scooters are illegal in all public places.
Elsewhere, such as in London, well, as it says here:
Electric scooters have long been something of a grey area, ..
You can hire them and ride them, but you can’t own them and ride them. Or something.
Meanwhile, yesterday, I was out for a bit, and spotted three more e-scooters scooting by. The people are fast making up their minds. The regulators need to catch up, or they’ll start looking very silly.
See also, Michael’s comment on an earlier posting here, about how the path is being cleared by cyclists for e-scooters. The regulators are creating e-scooter paths, which they now call “cycle lanes”.
So, cyclists are smoothing the ride for e-scooters. I seem to recall once upon a time reading that cyclists, way back when, did something rather similar for cars. They created a demand for flatter and better roads. Which the cars then proceeded to dominate, until now, in places like London, where so many of the cyclists are members of the regulating classes. E-scooters are more evenly matched against cyclists. Perhaps because of that, expect battles. Maybe the e-scooters, like cars, will get kitted out with bumpers at the front.
There is another factor. London’s air has been less polluted these last few months than it has been in centuries. I like this. I think so do lots of people. Switching from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles of various kinds is desirable for this reason. This is part of this.