Editorial: Scooter Rudeness, E-Bike Excess, Moped Madness
By • July 17, 2024 4 408
- In the spring of 2021, Lime scooters and bikes were released in Washington, D.C.
- D.C. was the first city to receive Lime scooters.
- Spin launched its dockless e-bike system in 2017.
- Scooters and e-bikes have had little regulation.
- This year, the District Council finally required mopeds (including scooters and, in some cases, e-bikes) to have license plates and their operators to have driving permits.
With the help of the Georgetown Business Improvement District, the District Department of Transportation has installed corrals on 31st and 28th Streets at M Street, among others. The bikes and scooters are supposed to be parked in the corrals or at bike racks. But the e-bike and scooter companies are ignoring the newly constructed corrals — evidenced by the photo of the corral at 31st and M Streets and the photo that follows of the bikes and scooters on the sidewalk at the corner and in the expanded sidewalk area.
Unfortunately, DDOT has lost control of the scooter and e-bike boom, which has overwhelmed Georgetown. The vehicles litter the sidewalks and bridges and block handicapped ramps throughout the neighborhood. They sometimes completely block sidewalk access. DDOT has all but conceded the sidewalk space to the scooter and e-bike companies.
The expanded sidewalks have ended up becoming storage areas for scooters and e-bikes. Frequently, there appear to be 10 times as many scooters as pedestrians in a given stretch of the expanded sidewalks.
It would be nice to see the Metropolitan Police Department spend a Saturday night in Georgetown enforcing the new rules regarding license plates. Unfortunately, the department does not seem to be actively enforcing them, even when unlicensed mopeds and scooters are sitting next to occupied MPD vehicles.
In addition to ruining the historic streetscape of Georgetown — Washington’s oldest neighborhood and a top visitor destination — the never-ending proliferation of e-bikes and scooters has made the simple act of walking on our sidewalks unsafe.
Everyone has the right to walk on the sidewalk without the clutter of scooters and e-bikes. It is time for the Council, the mayor, DDOT and MPD to get serious about this situation, and for the citizens of Georgetown to take back our sidewalks and streets.
A little signage would help. It does not appear that these corrals are marked in any way so how would riders know? On the other hand, the companies need to educate their customers, and after a grace period, Parking Enforcement should start fining them.
How about enacting laws for the operation of bikes. Riders are on sidewalks, wrong way lanes, in-between cars on the (busy) roads, don’t stop at signs or lights or crosswalks, zoom in from drivers’ blindsides and more. And of course the cop do Nothing, the dc govt does Nothing.
The bikes have no rules but riders scream about everything. Why not MV laws to anything with a wheel and employ enforcement squads who get a % of every citation they write. Make cops confiscate wheels that are an endangerment. Enough. Mayor Bowser, DO SOMETHING NOW!!!
I think it would be helpful if scooter and bike riders announce themselves as they speed by. Just saying “passing on the left or passing on the right” would help. Or ringing a horn or a bell. That would save us of feeling in danger.
Paris in 2023 become one of the only cities in Europe with an outright ban on rented e-scooters — as operators had planed to ramp up their e-bike fleets to replace them ahead of the 2024 Olympics.
The three scooter companies operating in Paris had a combined fleet of roughly 15,000 e-scooters in the city.
A referendum held in April, 2023 gave Parisians two choices regarding the rental scooters: for or against. The vote was 90% against the continued use of e-scooters.
Critics of the scooters say they clutter up pavements and roads, but also raise safety concerns. There were 459 accidents involving e-scooters or similar vehicles in Paris last year, including three fatalities, according to a Reuters report.
I suspect same results in DC where few riders use helmets and intimidate pedestrians by traveling fast in downtown, although the law forbids the use of sidewalks in the Central Business District.