Dockless Scooters Are Annoying, But They Might Spur A Clean Energy Revolution

The air is crisp. The sun is shining. A beautiful autumn day.
Nothing could spoil your commute to work…until someone on an electric scooter whizzes past you on the sidewalk, forcing you to jump out of the way, spilling coffee on your freshly dry-cleaned shirt.
“I hate those scooters!” you exclaim. “No good could come from these Razor scooters on steroids!”
It’s easy to make a snap judgment about the dockless e-scooters that have become ubiquitous in cities across the country. Most people heap scorn on them. News outlets have been churning out pieces that give scooters a bad name. The LA Times, the New York Times, even local outlets.
There’s an Instagram account, birdgraveyard, dedicated to posting videos and images of people defacing e-scooters.
They even hate them in Europe!
Most articles note legitimate concerns. No one should have to worry about being run over by a scooter on the sidewalk or scooters parked in the way of pedestrians or traffic. There are even real safety concerns for riders themselves, as hospitals have seen an uptick in scooter-related injuries since their introduction.

But the truth is, dockless electric scooters aren’t going anywhere. And that’s not a bad thing.
When Portland, Oregon released a study after a 120-day e-scooter pilot program, they found a few important details: People really like e-scooters, riders were replacing car rides with scooters, and most prefer to ride them in a bike lane.
Electric scooters could be the best way to remove cars from urban areas, reduce pollution, and invest in non-automobile-focused infrastructure.
That really should unite everyone behind scooters, but for many, it’s difficult to look beyond the problems they see as “annoying” and take in the bigger picture. That goes for pedestrians and drivers, but also cyclists, many of whom gripe about sharing bike lanes with scooters but have faced many of the same safety issues that plague e-scooter riders.
If safety is a concern for every mode of transit, that should mean more bike lanes and safer bike lanes.
This is where cyclists and scooter riders should find a lot of common ground (and pedestrians who don’t want them clogging up the sidewalk).
The Washington Area Bicyclist Association, a group that advocates for the safety and rights of cyclists, understands the connection that cyclists and e-scooter riders have in common, noting that, “The infrastructure needs of people riding scooters are closely aligned with the needs of folks on bikes.”
Sarah Iannarone, the associate director of First Stop Portland, a Portland State University initiative created to rethink the way we look at urban planning, recently told the Atlantic’s CityLab that creating space for non-automobile modes of transit, like bike lanes, has been difficult because “Cyclists haven’t had critical mass to politically demand a fair allocation of urban space.”
Iannarone also notes that e-scooters give people more non-automobile options, and provide “a better chance to shift habits compared to other consumer-driven mode choices.”

The sheer popularity of electric scooters might just be enough to break the car addiction city-goers still have. It might even be enough to force cities to take a new look at how they plan for non-automobile transit.
If safety for every transit mode is a concern and reducing our collective carbon footprint is as well, e-scooters might just be a game-changer.
But until cities make changes, hold on tightly to your coffee and watch your step, just don’t blame e-scooter riders for getting in your way. For now, they don’t have any choice.
