I only seriously noticed e-scooters this year. But whenever I seriously notice something, the pattern is usually that I have already noticed it, but rather less seriously.
So it was with e-scooters. Here are the two earliest photoings of these devices that I’ve so far been able to discover in the photo-archives.
This one was spotted and photoed by me in July of last year, in the vicinity of the Tate Gallery (ancient version):
And then, two weeks later, in August, there was this, beside Victoria Dock, out east:
A piece of up-and-coming technology being driven towards some ancient tech that is now only a sculpture. When I say ancient tech, I’m talking about the lower reaches of the old dock crane there, not the ship. The ship is still a real ship. Well, nearly. It’s now a hotel. But it could surely still travel, if business would be better elsewhere. And behind all that is the footbridge across the dock, a particular favourite of mine.
My next task is to discover what e-developments suddenly made e-scooters possible, during the last five years or so? Was it just that e-motors got smaller? Was it the batteries that made the difference? Once again, the Internet falls over itself to tell me how to buy an e-scooter, but is less forthcoming about why I am suddenly able buy such a thing at all.
My taxis-with-adverts enthusiasm is no more than an aesthetically driven hobby, the way my granny used to collect ornamental plates, or so I recall it. Watching what happens to and with e-scooters during the next few years will be to watch a little slice of transport history.
This website, which seems to be a forum and resource for e-scooter enthusiasts, thinks it was the invention and gradual improvement of the Lithium battery.
ELECTRIC SCOOTER: ORIGINS, HISTORY AND EVOLUTION
Alastair
Thanks, even more than usual. Exactly what I was hoping for. Better, actually.
Great historical techno-analysis, but also great photos of bygone transport contraptions.
There were amazing amount of hype when the Segway was introduced in 2001-2. There was a core of something real in the hype, I think.
It seems to me that quite soon now, there’ll be a standard form of transport based on electric motors and batteries, which will be portable and easily stored at home or work, and on other forms of transport. But I don’t assume that the e-scooter will be It. But the e-scooter does now look a very good bet to me.