I recently went south to LA and SD, and the scooters are awesome there. I saw them mostly near the beach, and 0 thrown in the middle of the pavement, none blocking exits or riding them obnoxiously. They even have scooter police that will give you a ticket if you go too fast (I am not saying that as necessarily a good thing, just that they seem to have their stuff together as cities). For the first time I actually made an account and hopped on one of them.

However, in SF they overdid it. I don't know if SF residents got replaced by a bunch of self-entitled nerdy manchildren, but holy hell they were obnoxious. You would see 5-6 of them blocking the entrance to a restaurant (at anchorsteam brewery tap room especially). Thrown down in the middle of the pavement. People riding them on the sidewalk yelling "GOTTA GO FAST", going somewhat fast (at least have some dignity and dress like Sonic the hedgehog if you 're gonna do that). Think of an 80s action movie where the punks or hell's angels type of gangs run amok in the city, but it's dudes wearing startup t-shirts on electric scooters instead. Anyway, I 'm not a nimby but their presence in SF really left a sour taste.

But after seeing them in LA and San Diego I am convinced they can work super nicely if a little bit of common sense is applied. Maybe the SF populous is early adopters and jumped on the latest trend with too much passion, or maybe those companies put on the streets too many units. I don't know, but it can be done right and I 'd really like to see them back.