E Bikes Parking and Electric Scooters
Other
70% of those blind or have sight problems have collided with electric scooters and "parked" e bikes.
Have you had problems with either? I'm all for both but I find both can be a menace by the users. Electric scooters are illegal to use on roads where I am but people still use them without helmets and no thoughts or cares for other road users. We used to have a company that you could hire e bikes from. Thankfully no longer going. I only say Thankfully cos they were literally dumped everywhere with no regards of others and trying to move them was impossible as you needed to pay for them to make it work.
I just saw this on gmb and was quite shocked. Those of us who do not have sight problems can sometimes forget the hazards blind people encounter. I don't think I have ever caused an obstacle but I will certainly be even more aware now.
Lynibis exactly when I was in London I saw how hard it was for others to travel. I saw it on gmb as well
Leannexxx I hate cyclists on pavements. I refuse to get out their way. I make them go in the road. I once had one try and make me put a pram into a dual carriageway with cars moving. I refused and made him wait while shouting at me to move until it was safe. He was fuming as I slowed down his journey. If he'd carried on the road and gone the longer way along the road he'd have been quicker.
It's strange that the government has electric scooter hire schemes which are of course legal for people to ride but private ownership of the same type of scooter is illegal to use. This seems unfair especially as private ownership of scooters means people take more care of them. They don't normally leave them on pavements etc because that risks them being stolen and they are high value so they tend to keep them with them. However hire scheme scooters seem to be left all over the place.
I've not really seen an issue with parked ebikes locally but we have no hire schemes for those locally I think and private ownership again means people are careful where they park them. I personally would be wary of leaving a privately owned ebike anywhere it could easily be stolen. There seems to be almost no effort to catch bicycle thieves nowadays or punish them so the only real deterrent is to have a very low value bicycle which won't of course be an ebike but a conventional bicycle. Unless they are guaranteed £20 or so for a quick sale for a hit I don't think many of these scum would bother with a bicycle and even if they did steal it, it probably wouldn't be that difficult to get another same value bike of freecycle. I've watched enough videos now that if riders want to buy something in a shop, one rider will go in and buy the items and the other rider will stay outside and guard the bikes, that is where we are at nowadays. Where people have locked their ebikes up to prevent theft and its worked they have still come back to slashed tyres and broken ebike displays such is the vermin that are about in our society.
So I guess ultimately we can thank these criminals as without such crime ebikes would probably be even more of a nuisance as people would be able to use them much more freely and not worry about theft. One of the reasons given by people why they don't use an ebike is the high risk of theft along with very dangerous drivers on the road. There is a huge amount of uninsured and untaxed cars on the road nowadays. Estimates are around a million such vehicles plus you have joy riders etc. Our choices are often dictated by crime.
There appears to have been a decline in the number of people using e-scooters in my area. I'm assuming many of the people that used them have switched to e-bikes. A lot of e-bike riders are a bit of a menace. The worst offenders are often food delivery riders (Deliveroo, Just Eat, Uber Eats, etc). Most have a complete disregard for pedestrians and other road users - not stopping at zebra crossings, not using bike lights when it's dark, riding on pavements, etc. Some people that use hire e-bikes often appear to intentionally leave them in the most inconvenient places on pavements. In the capital, Transport for London (TFL) have recently announced they intend to start fining e-bike hire companies 'if their customers do not leave the bikes and scooters in the correct place. TfL could also seize abandoned bikes and even take bike firms to court' - www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/electric-hire-bikes-ebikes-lime-voi-london-parking-bays-tfl-b1196145.html
The e bikes are invariably dumped in divers places and are a hazard for people who are partially sighted I am sure.I know they are eco but they can be a menace as well.
I absolutely hate these and find them a nuisance. We have a lot of issues with these where I live especially as a lot of youngsters like to ride it with two people on it. They have also caused some accidents whilst stationary and in use.
Swimmer94 yes they are a nuisance. I'm not surprised you'd area has had accidents involving them
I think they are horrendous, if you are hit by a speeding cyclist that is bad enough, but a speeding e scooter or bike can seriously injure or kill with all that weight to the frame
telmel I agree. I don't think people care that their bikes can seriously injure or kill someone else
The trend seems to have died out in my area thankfully as they are really difficult to see on the roads until a few meters away. Before any criticism of my eyesight it’s perfectly fine, but with dark clothes and no lights ……
jillylovesyou oh really that's interesting that it's died down. I wonder if it's because there's been a couple of stories in the news where the battery of the bike has caught fire that's stopped people using it
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