City of Perth to suspend e-scooter hire after pedestrian death
The City of Perth is suspending the hire of e-scooters following the death of a 51-year-old pedestrian who was struck in the CBD by a hired e-scooter.
As annoying as some escooter users are, I don't think this is the best solution. Far more idiots cause deaths in cars, no calls to ban those.
There's no e-scooter dealership lobby to protect them
It doesn't appear to be a ban, so much as a suspension. Which seems totally reasonable when new technology is involved in a death.
Cars are regulated, with minimum safety requirements, and drivers are required to undergo (minimal) training. I'm not sure what's appropriate for e-scooters, but similar requirements could be reasonable.
Scooters are already quite regulated. Max speed 25kph (not allowed to be capable of more than that on level ground) Max weight 25kg Max size 12570135 cm
https://www.wa.gov.au/organisation/road-safety-commission/erideables The hire ones are all compliant with the regulations.
The hire ones also have GPS in them that is used to determine when they are in pedestrian areas where the speed gets limited to 10kph automatically. Probably not the greatest on narrow streets.
we really are crying out to make car lanes smaller and expand bike lanes into full size car lanes so that people/bikes/scooters/hover boards/"whatever else we think of" can go in them
With that said even in the best places the competition between people and bikes/scooters seems to be the same story
Well, cars have to go on the road, you need a license, and you follow rules and signs. It's sad that everyone has to pay for the misdeeds of some idiots, but I've had far more incidents with scooters than with cars.
Doubt taxis have ever been suspended for killing pedestrians.