Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/06/25/gentleman-has-a-few-too-many-s.html
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You’re not helping dispel the stereotype, Scooter Bro.
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When he stepped out of the car (after the cop was explaining to him the use of gravity) I was flabbergasted. Who the hell can drive barefoot? Am I the only one who is weirded out by operating a car without shoes? Unless you are a flintstone that is.
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#firstworld1.1problems 
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On weekends, if I’m wearing flip-flops, I generally slide my right foot out of the flipflop when I’m driving, because otherwise the flip-flop and causes problems with controlling the accelerator pedal. the gas pedal on my truck is rubberized, so it’s not like I’m putting my bare foot on a red hot metal slab or anything…
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These things are all over downtown ATL now. I see lots of kids zipping around on them. We’ll see how that works out.
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Just me then. I’ve always been weirded out with a bare foot on a peddle. Just makes me feel like one has less control over a car. It’s illogical I know.
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I don’t know if it’s illogical. I think racing shoes have super rigid soles and snug uppers for just this reason – to give surety to the connection between foot and pedal.
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I used to know someone who had nerve damage who could only drive barefoot.
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At the risk of copping to a crime, I personally NEVER wear shoes when driving, unless it’s snowing or cold enough to snow.
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I am SO joining the Society for Barefoot Living!
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It’s funny. People in San Francisco hate these scooters. But in San Jose we’ve kind of embraced them in our much smaller downtown area. Easy way to get between the parking lots and the Light Rail stops. And if you’re going to take Cal-Train it’s cheaper to hop on the scooter than ride on the light rail for the short 1/2 mile to 1 mile trip. (guessing the distance, takes 10-20 minutes to walk)
Still I’ve almost killed a few scooter riders with my truck. I don’t feel super bad about it because they were either doing an illegal lane usage, traveling against the flow or traffic, or using a crosswalk but while the light was red.
What’s key is in San Jose I don’t see piles of them laying in the middle of the sidewalk. But everyone rides them like they are wearing full body armor. So a few people are going to die every year on Bird and Lime.
earlier I posted that San Jose wasn’t regulating them, but last week the city council has taken up the issue.
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I’ve seen this knucklehead collecting Bird scooters around Venice and Marina Del Rey. He has gotten progressively more daring over the last few weeks with the number of scooters he takes and I’m glad he was finally caught. He is not the only one around here collecting large numbers of scooters and transporting them unsafely either.
As far as these rental scooters go, I think they are really dangerous. They move faster than the average bicyclist and are piloted by the least experienced riders. They are unsteady, especially when ridden on the sandy beach bike path around here. The renters are not wearing proper safety gear, are often visibly intoxicated, and they don’t understand (or care) about the basic rules of riding in this area.
As a cyclist who rides on the Venice bike path a few times each week, since the start of 2018 I’ve seen:
- A scooter rider crash while trying to ride and take pictures with his expensive camera. I’ve never seen a camera break into so many little pieces before.
- A scooter rider crash while trying to operate his cell phone. He lost a tooth and injured his mouth after bashing his face into the ground.
- A scooter rider who was riding on the sidewalk who crashed into a Starbucks customer shortly after she emerged from the store. Hot coffee went everywhere and the poor woman was essentially flattened by the fast moving scooter renter. The guy on the scooter looked back after smashing into the woman, but kept on riding.
- A scooter rider who crashed into a bunch of pedestrians because he wasn’t watching where he was going.
- Highly intoxicated people riding scooters in and out of moving traffic on Washington Blvd.
- Scooters abandoned in inappropriate places like the middle of streets, blocking building entrances and fire exits, laying across sidewalks, in the Venice Canal.
The city really needs to put some regulations around the use of these dockless scooters.
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I would ask which “Scooter Bro” you’re referring to but it doesn’t matter because whichever one it is, either in the main vid or the Vice clip, you’re right.
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Yeah they sap resources from public transit, but have no obligation to provide an affordable service. Once the metro loses enough money that they have to reduce service, and suddenly the scooters have surge pricing, lots of people get assed out of viable transportation.
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there are capacity issues with the current light rail line in San Jose. Also people don’t ride it because it’s slow. Several years ago I used to commute 1 hour on light rail to go 9.6 miles, a quick look on google maps confirms the time is still that long. It’s really only about 45 minutes by bike, although I’m not always in the mood to have a series of near-death experiences.
I have been told time and again by various high level driving instructors and drivers that driving barefoot is a big no no.
Well except in one specific situation, if you only other option to driving barefoot is a pair of thongs then barefoot is vastly superior as thongs can and have killed people here in Australia. (A thong loving people)
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Electric scooters! All the coolness of a motorcycle, without any of the coolness of a motorcycle.
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RED FLAG that…
there is little or no information coming yet on legislation
here in the uk electric transportation is restricted to 15mph
…otherwise insurance and registration is required
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