Nashville mayor wants to ban electric scooters

[Shawn Knight]

Background: In May, 26-year-old Brady Gaulke died following a scooter accident in Nashville. Witnesses say he improperly turned left from a sidewalk into the street and was struck by a Nissan SUV. Police later said he had more than twice the legal limit of alcohol in his system at the time of the accident.

Nashville Mayor David Briley recently recommended to council members that existing pilot programs with seven scooter companies come to a conclusion and e-scooters be banned from city streets.

Lime, Lyft, Spin, Gotcha, Bird, Bolt and Jump have been operating as part of a pilot program in Nashville, Quartz reports. In May, however, Briley sent a letter to all scooter operators regarding concerns the city had with current operations including improper riding, parking violations, poor rider education and visual clutter.

Over the past month, Briley’s administration met with representatives from four scooter companies and considered resident feedback. Jump, Bird, Lime, Gotcha and Lyft submitted a proposed agreement regarding shared urban mobility devices (SUMDs) last Friday but Briley said he doesn’t believe the proposal goes far enough to protect the safety of residents and visitors.

As such, he has recommended that existing SUMD programs be terminated and scooters be removed from rights-of-way once legislation passes.

Masthead credit: electric scooter on the street by Leika production

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https://www.techspot.com/news/80647-nashville-mayor-wants-ban-electric-scooters.html

 

[TomSEA]

So one drunk ***** does something stupid, and now that's a reason to set policy?

 

[Uncle Al]

Sadly it's a lot more than one drunk. We see this on the news here nearly every night. They drop these things off any and everywhere, they ride on the sidewalks knocking more than a few people out of the way, and believe it or not ... they ride while texting! While it was a great idea the implementation has been terrible and when told to clean up their act, the scooter companies ignored the directive. The mayor has a good idea in having them all removed, give us a year or two cooling down period, then bring them back with a lot more control and management. Nope ... that one drunk got what he deserved and paid the ultimate price, now we need something for everyone else .....

 

[Hardware Geek]

So drunk *****s are ruining it for everyone? Let Darwin take its course as far as I'm concerned. Between that and people being *****s and dropping them anywhere, it sounds like they need better legislation to regulate this new industry. A central hub system with several charging racks which require riders to return the scooter to one of these or get hit with a fine/fee for pickup if they don't or won't return them to the proper area.

Ideas like this aren't bad per se, but the implementation needs massive improvement. Simply outlawing them removes a potential revenue stream for the area, where proper regulation should be sufficient. At the very least, these companies should be insured for situations like drunk *****s.

 

[ShagnWagn]

Good. Get rid of these damn things. I walked one city block and it's ridiculous. I stopped counting at 25 of them! I guess I should open a company where it's legal to dump my trash everywhere, too. There is an extremely long list of cons against these.

Heaven forbid someone actually getting some walking exercise! Encouraging further generations for more obesity all in the name of money!