This is just a brief note on rental electric scooters. The point is that, from what I’ve experienced in the City of Fairfax, they seem to be working out OK there. That’s based entirely on a few trips into Fairfax City, so take it with a grain of salt.
Yesterday (9/22/2019) I biked to Fairfax City to attend a showing of electric cars at the old town square. I noted:
- One scooter parked at Fairfax High School.
- Several scooters parked just outside the old town square.
- One scooter parked at the Walgreens across the street
- None parked at the Fairfax County Library.
All were parked neatly, out of the path of travel.
I saw several scooter riders over the course of the afternoon. All were young people, appearing to me to be in the high school/college age bracket. All were riding on the sidewalks. All were riding responsibly, that is, at reasonable speed, paying full attention to pedestrians. One was clearly using the scooter to do a fairly long commute to and from Fairfax High School.
My point is that people tend to write up their experiences with rental electric scooters only when they are bad. Based on that alone, you’d get a pretty biased view of them.
I just want to report that while walking among those electric cars, next to a park, on a nice sunny day, having a few kids glide by on their electric scooters seemed normal. In a futuristic kind of way, sure. But all-in-all, normal. In that context, it all kind of clicked.
FWIW
