Vocal Voices

Yesterday walking from the railway station to catch a bus home two youngsters on a scooter nearly knocked me over.
THey caught my right arm as they speed past down the sloping pavement. THere were several other pedestrians going in both directions.
There could easily have been a very nasty accident.
They were going to fast to be stopped and quickly disappeared. Only saw them when they were a few feet away rapidly approaching.
And they want to make them legal. How about only on the fast lane of motorways.

Disgusting!

And yes they do want the make these damned lethal toys legal but on the roads, it's madness.

Those things are a menace! Glad you were ok x

Glad you're OK Cruiser, as you say that could have been a nasty accident.

I can't believe they want to make them legal for road use - crikey!!!

So annoying I’m sure you got a fright, I would have.

Glad you’re okay Cruiser.

The use of electric scooters is being trialled in Birmingham at the moment. They’re a menace. It states one person per scooter yet you regularly see two people on them. On Sunday we were crossing at the junction of Hurst St and Smallbrook Queensway, the green man was showing so we were okay to cross but along came a twentysomething on an electric scooter, straight through the red light with both eyes on his phone.

There was a man killed in Wolverhampton a few weeks ago when his scooter was in a collision with a car.

are they thinking of making them legal for road use or for being on pavements? Assume they'd need relevant safety gear, ie proper helmet, as well as they would be considered a motorised vehicle on the road?

They are a seriously bad idea.
E-scooters are supposed to be limited to 15.5 mph. But you can go online and buy a much more powerful "limited to off road use" E-scooter that will well exceed that.

They are a menace to pedestrians and they are lethal to the rider if you ride them on the road. They have tiny little wheels, so if you hit a deep pothole riding an E-scooter the odds are that you will be thrown off into the road and be at the mercy of passing traffic.

The government like them because they think that they could replace car use in our cities. Yes, if there were no pedestrians, dog walkers or pavement cafes, and if every road was as smooth as a billiard table and didn't have much traffic on it. But in the real world they are an awful idea and only a bonehead like Grant Shapps (Transport Minister) would think otherwise.

meriad wrote:are they thinking of making them legal for road use or for being on pavements? Assume they'd need relevant safety gear, ie proper helmet, as well as they would be considered a motorised vehicle on the road?

This page gives you a bit on info about using them in Birmingham, it says that you’re encouraged to wear a helmet but I’ve yet to see a rider with one, and that it’s illegal to ride on pavements. The main hub for them is in the pedestrianised area near the top of New St (!!) and they’re whizzing through the crowds around the city centre on them.

https://www.voiscooters.com/ride-safely-in-birmingham/

They are all over the place round here, except rarely on the roads. They whizz up behind you silently, they fly round corners and you meet them head on. They get dumped and left in the middle of the pavements. They are an absolute menace and in this day and age of tackling obesity, I wouldn't have expected youngsters to be given even more reason not to walk anywhere