ENFORCEMENT of all laws, please!

A not-insignificant segment of electric scooter users are failing to implement basic safety measures. I regularly observe scooters traveling the wrong direction at quite a fast clip along bike lanes; zipping along sidewalks at speeds unsafe for pedestrians; many wear no helmets; some are riding with a passenger on a scooter designed for a single user, including adults ferrying their small kids on these, which is so treacherous. As a pedestrian I have leapt out of the way of a scooter speeding along the sidewalk and the operator of that scooter took no evasive action nor did they slow to a safer speed, and I resent the widespread carelessness with which these are operated.

Electric scooters are fantastic vehicles if there weren’t other factors like pedestrians and automobiles within the same space. The mix ain’t good. I don’t have a lawn but please get off my sidewalk.

In reply to Irish Scarlett.

>A lot of us do potentially dangerous sports and do not demand that the environment be rearranged to accommodate us.

This type of broad brush statement is offensive. My biking has been to go to work. I couldn’t afford a car. Do I deserve to die just because you choose to do dangerous sports in your leisure time?

My experience tells me that the scooters are much more likely to be at fault. When they come off of the sidewalk and enter the crosswalk at a high rate of speed, it’s almost impossible for the driver to anticipate and stop in time. They are moving from one pedestrian walkway where pedestrians are at risk into another pedestrian walkway where most drivers wouldn’t expect to see anyone come out of the blue at that fast a rate of speed. While we are talking about dangerous behavior, many jay walkers are either elderly or have a disability. They are clearly unable to navigate a jay walking maneuver but it doesn’t seem to deter them from trying.

The least safe thing on the streets are potholes. Fix the potholes and people will be less liable to lose their balance. If pothole can take out a car, imagine what it can do to a scooter.

I rode motorcycles for decades with one accident my first week ( train tracks). I have difficulty feeling sorry for scooter riders, watching how little they follow safety rules, much less laws.
Now I’m 78 and fear being hit by bikes, scooters and even motor scooters on the sidewalk/ crosswalks.
Maybe our cops could stop busting homeless people with shopping carts and bring some order to the streets. The SFPD should be good for something.

In reply to Nick.

But who will enforce any regulations in the streets? It’s worth mentioning that there is virtually no SFPD moving-traffic enforcement to speak of and therefore very little incentive for ANY device on the street to behave civilly. SFPD embraced the work-from-home mentality by doing nothing at all 2-3 days every week and the bare minimum homicide investigation the rest of the time.

Before we rearrange SF’s streets to accommodate a very small minority, let’s insist on scooter riders getting some training and using helmets. Bike riders too need to use better sense (for example, not riding at night while wearing dark clothing and not having lights or reflectors) and need to have their bikes registered and insured, like cars.
Both groups need to stay off the sidewalk. There are abundant bike lanes in SF, with the bike groups demanding more each time there is an accident. A lot of us do potentially dangerous sports and do not demand that the environment be rearranged to accommodate us. Getting training, using proper protection, and respecting the rights of others make the city safer fore everyone.

Is helmet use captured in any ER/accident data?

Over half are the riders fault. Perhaps there should be training and licensing for all these newer unregulated powered bikes and scooters.

On blocks where the streets are made too dangerous by gig-workers driving Priuses
(without catalytic converters) in mid-block circles and doing 5-point turns, the scooters take to the sidewalks at high rates of speed, endangering pedestrians. I pine for the civil days of pedal-bikes and skateboards…..

Since, according to the article, a majority of the collisions are the fault of the scooter rider, shouldn’t the rental companies have better, enforced safety requirements? In Paris, Barcelona and other cities, the companies are mandated to limit speed of scooters. Also, in Paris, they are about to be banned because too many scooter riders ignore the safety of pedestrians. Over 80% of those who voted voted for banning them.

As a motorcycle rider, one must come to grips with – it’s not if you wacked or auger into the pavement – it’s when. These things are way more dangerous – in my two wheel opinion. Folks are zippin’ around with no helmets, street shoes (even flip flops!), no gloves, no nothin’. Results are as expected.

As with most things in SF gov, the public safety campaign is just performative.

On the flip side – business for facial re-construction plastic surgeons is a boooomin’. Seriously (friend of a friend intel) – think of that next time you get on one of those things.

I think these electric scooters are inherently unsafe. The idea of standing on such a narrow platform seems very unsound. These things are essentially motorized versions of the kind of push scooter a child would ride. Except now we’re in city traffic. Plus these things are scattered all over sidewalks. Like the driverless cars, allowing these things on city streets is a mistake.

Bornheimer also helped make JFK “safe” for distasteful Doggie Diner Heads, a hot dog stand (in the middle of the road!), a beer garden, tasteless “murals,” etc.

People CHOOSE to ride on sidewalks, and every street can not have a bike lane.

As I suspected, the bike corrals were put in as a subsidy to the scooter rental industry.

SF’s deadly bike infrastructure is to blame. For now, SF remains a car first city no matter what the city government says

Atlanta requires that all scooters cut off when a rider attempts to ride on the sidewalks. San Francisco has the same ability to require the scooter companies (like Lime Uber) to install the software that prevents scooters from operating on sidewalks. SFMTA has the authority to do so. Why don’t they?
In 2022 at a Board of Supervisors hearing on the subject: “That is the technology they [scooter companies] have,” Peskin said. “They can do it here, but they don’t, because it’s not part of their buinsess model.”

Supervisor Shamann Walton asked Joel Ramos, the local government affairs manager for the SFMTA, why the scooter companies aren’t using that technology to keep riders off the sidewalk. Ramos said we “have asked them to employ it … within the current permit structure.”

Walton: “Why are we asking and not demanding?”

Ramos: “There are terms of the contract we are trying to respect.”

And there lies the essence of the fundamental problem.

The scooters in the photo are parked in violation of the permit requirements. Rent-a-scooters (and bikes) are limited to two per public rack. They must be parked on the same side of the rack.