Electric Scooters, and a Network

It always bothers me that newspapers usually omit hyperlinks to relevant information. Here's a paper by the guy they interview in the article: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/245612

"[...] two-stroke scooters, vehicles that constitute a small fraction of the fleet, but can dominate urban vehicular pollution through organic aerosol and aromatic emission factors up to thousands of times higher than from other vehicle classes."

(PS: don't make that into an argument for cars and against scooters though. By reducing congestion, people opting for scooters can help all other road users pollute less. So electric scooters should be a priority - http://www.etatrust.org.uk/2014/05/scooters-vs-cars-vs-lorri... )

I've been in China on vacation last August and one of the first things I noticed is that all the scooters and rickshaws are electric. I noticed because they are silent as bicycles and I wasn't prepared to do without the usual clues of incoming quick traffic.

Most of them are old internal combustion scooters with the engine replaced by a battery and an electrical engine fitted into the rear wheel. There are also new natively electrical designs. I googled for a picture and this is what is left of a scooter when you don't need all the infrastructure required by a combustion engine http://www.motorcyclephilippines.com/classifieds/showfull.ph...

Many shopkeepers charge their scooters with cables going over the sidewalk to the scooter parked in front of the shop. I wonder what people living in those very common 24 or 32 storyes buildings do. Maybe the batteries can be detached and carried home at night. I think I never saw a charging station.

There's been a boom in small, low speed transportation devices in the last five years. For $100 you can get an "adult kick scooter" with a brake - I ride one to connect with transit. Small-wheel folding scooter designs hit a sweet spot so a lot of variants are passing through - different wheel sizes, polyurethane vs. air tires, hand brake vs. foot brake, and most importantly powered options. Electric small-wheel scooters running around $1000 are common, and recently there was a crowdfunding campaign for a generic conversion kit [0]. The article's focus on traditional mopeds getting caught up in electrification is an interesting complementary story.

And, of course more wacky, impractical stuff like the "hoverboard" or "powered longboard" has also come along at the same time. It's a lot of fun to watch all these new ideas come online - give it a few more years and they'll all be in the impulse-buy range.

[0] https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/shareroller-add-on-e-powe...

What is the fate of batteries after their useful life is over?

Very cool technology, but I feel bad for Amsterdam cyclists who will have these silent scooters sharing their bike lanes while going at much faster speeds.