Sidewalks are safer. But only one company remains, and only a quarter of the scooters expected to operate have been deployed
Muto said she is optimistic the new package of regulations, including the controversial sidewalk throttling rule, can work moving forward. And only two of the four companies picked to operate in San Diego have followed through. Link has completely abandoned San Diego, while Lime is still working with city officials on compliance with the sidewalk throttling requirement.
Lime has unsuccessfully lobbied the city instead to require scooters to give riders audible alerts when they steer onto a sidewalk. “It doesn’t get down to zero, so you don’t get somebody stopping dead in their tracks — it gradually slows down to 3 mph,” she said. “Each of the companies has models in their fleet that meet and even perform superbly with the speed throttling.”
“We’re pretty pleased with the regulations at this point,” said Muto, acknowledging that some fine-tuning may still be needed. “We’re having very open conversations and collaboration with both the operators and the public to understand where those pinch points are.”
Maybe if they didn’t have to be “disrupters” and start a business with no notification to the cities and governments they operate in, they’d have figured out this would be harder than they expected.
Nope. The city wants the funds and prioritizes that over pedestrian safety. Scooters in the bike lane or street? Fine. Here’s an idea: WALK the “last mile”. If you don’t feel safe riding a motorized vehicle in the bike lane then walk!