rsa supporting e-scooters

Going... going... GONE!

Parisians vote to ban rental e-scooters from French capital by huge margin | Paris | The Guardian

Given that they work fine in other cities, maybe it's the perfect example of how the problem is not with the object, but with the people using them.

Anyway... it's too early on a Monday morning for me to get worked up enough to go on a rant...

Re the above posts - that's the whole point of the system over there. They're not tied to 'docking stations', which means they're much more flexible in terms of use and convenience for going from point to point. There are restrictions in where you can leave them - when you end a ride the app can detect where you are, and if it's in a no park zone you can't 'end' the ride and lock the scooter. If you dump it, you'll keep getting charged per minute and as the scooter is unlocked, anyone could hop on it and go for a joyride at your expense.

If you want a scooter, you just open the app, it checks your location and shows you all available scooters nearby on the map.

With responsible use they really are a very handy alternative for getting around a city when time is a factor. I'd definitely use them in Dublin if they were here, even just for grabbing a coffee on the other side of the city over lunch.

Was the vote a blanket ban on e-scooters or a ban on rental scooters ?

I'm assuming that licensing for rental scooters could be significantly tightened up - so they're not abandoned everywhere..

I'd be intrigued to know the age profile of voters in that paris vote ,

I'd imagine older ...

Minuscule turnout of about 7.5%, and weighted towards older voters apparently so that was only going to go one way. It was an interesting move by Anne Hidalgo (mayor) to have a vote rather than just banning them by decree. For anyone using them that didn't get off their arse to go out and cast their vote and is feeling a bit sore, they've no comeback.

That said the free for all with the scooters just being dumped n'importe ou,as they'd say over here and the frequency of them being ridden at speed on the footpath was never going to garner much love

I'd agree with all you say, and the hope is that the result will be a big wake up call for the companies that they have a responsibility for the conduct of their users and can't just shrug their shoulders and say "not me guv'nor". All this is possible, though GPS wouldn't nave the accuracy to say the scooter is neatly parked at the side of the path rather than slap bank in the middle, but making the companies responsible for dumped scooters would concentrate their minds. Yes there is the possibility that some toerag could chuck them around after being parked, but they should be able to mitigate against that.

It was the same with the ones I've used in Berlin. You take a photo of the parked scooter in an approved zone, and then the app confirms the ride has ended. Possibly a lot of the problem is scrotes knocking them over when they're parked? I dunno. Agreed though, if the will was there it should be easy enough to find solutions to the problem if it arises in some cities. But again, the issue is human behaviour and not the 'evil eScooter'.

On the docking bay point, I used to take a Dublin Bike from around Stephens Green to the IFSC for work in the mornings years ago. Frequently you couldn't dock the bike on arrival as the stand was full. And then yesterday I passed a Dublin Bike stand on Leeson St Bridge to find someone taking out the last available bike. Plus you have the real inconvenience of the limited range you can travel one-way on a Dublin Bike due to the lack of stations - are there any south of the canal?

A walk to Donnybrook for coffee over lunch would take me 30 minutes at least. Probably less than 10 on a Dublin Bike or eScooter, but there's nowhere to park the Dublin Bike there. That issue wouldn't arise with an eScooter and is the perfect example of how they make cities more liveable without taking away from other forms of public transport. Unfortunately, as with so many progressive solutions the initial reaction seems to be fear, contempt and apathy instead of adopting them and finding a way to integrate them in a safe, healthy and beneficial way. Whereas here - again as pointed out above - we do the classic Irish thing of not legislating for them but turning a blind eye as they proliferate.

yeah, Brussels is similar, dumped all over the place. I believe DCC have already said that won't be allowed in Dublin, that there will be specific areas designated for the scooters and users that don't comply will be fined by the operators.

We were at the East Side gallery having lunch along the banks of the river and a dredger pulled in to offload a skipload of Lime and the other two main companies ebikes/escooters and the large moped sized electric scooters that they'd pulled from the riverbed covered in mud and those invasive goose barnacles, he said they do this all day twice a week and it just gets worse as time goes on.

All these companies are barely profitable as it is, Id say they'll struggle to stay going once the hot startup money runs out and they have to stand on their own. Cant complain about my experience with Lime in Berlin though, we had an absolute blast shooting around on the scooters and the system worked flawlessly, great way to get around the city.

DCC aren't moving slowly, the legislation still hasn't been passed.