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Comment by Gigachad | Hacker News Reader

I think electric stand up scooters have a strong future. They are extremely convenient in that they can easily be taken inside offices, in elevators, on public transport, etc which is something you couldn't easily do with bikes. They really boost the usefulness of public transport because you can now quickly get to the nearest stop even if its 1-2km away.

Unfortunately they are illegal by default in much of the world but this seems to be changing.

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Stand up scooters don't carry cargo or children and rain or snow instantly remove them from the equation.

Electric cabin scooters with removable batteries cover way more what cars offer today in an urban environment. Something like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabin_motorcycle or that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto_rickshaw

No form of transport covers literally all cases, it doesn’t make it useless. For the majority of office commuters, not having to pay for parking and being able to reach public transport which would otherwise be too far is a huge plus.

> No form of transport covers literally all cases

Funny cause that is exactly what people buy cars for. Which is what we need a good replacement for. E-Scooters are fine but not what will get rid of heavy cars.

Well a car does not work for my use case where I have no place available to park it and need to take trips of mostly around 2km where there is also no parking. There is currently no transport method faster than an ebike/scooter for the trips I take.

> Unfortunately they are illegal by default in much of the world

You are way off base here, considering that there must be at least 1000 times more electric scooters than electric cars sold in much of the world.

They are, strictly speaking, illegal in the UK, except for limited pilot schemes. And yes, widely used. They are too beefy to count as a bicycle (like, no pedals etc) but don't meet more stringent criteria for a motorbike (like indicators, side mirrors etc).

I'm less sure, but think they are also illegal in the EU, on the same premise.

Illegal in most of Australia but the laws are being reviewed in most states. We have had rental scooters as a “trial” since 2019 which has been very successful, but owning one yourself is still an illegal unregistered vehicle.

They are actually less powerful than e-bikes. E-bikes being allowed up to 25km/h while the rental ones are limited to 15km/h

They’re not illegal in Queensland (although there are quite ridiculously extreme and nonsensical penalties - for example the fine for using a mobile phone while riding a 15 kg scooter is exactly the same (over $1000!) as for somebody doing that while driving a multi-tonne vehicle that could flatten multiple pedestrians and kill multiple passengers at once in an accident)… Not that they shouldn’t have fines, it’s just the consequences to others for accidents in cars and trucks are hugely different and the fine should reflect that.

Anyway, luckily I don’t care to do that , and the rule I do tend to break (going over 12 km/h on a pedestrian footpath) is almost unenforceable (I only do it if it’s completely clear, I slow right down if there are people within a few tens of meters ahead). You can go 25 km/h on bikeways and roads, but you aren’t allowed to ride on 60 km/h or up roads.

Even with the crazy laws, it’s still a great way to get around and far better to have some silly rules than it being completely banned!

Yes, much of the world doesn't really have any relevant rules, but there are quite a lot of rich countries in which an electric scooter is not allowed on the road because it doesn't fit into any of the allowed categories or conform to the strict rules that govern vehicles, but is not allowed on footpaths either because it is a vehicle (it has wheels).

Ironically, the first time I saw an electric scooter in use, which was a very long time ago, it was in a Swiss railway station, and I think the user had just alighted from a train. (Switzerland has a reputation, perhaps unjustly, for strict rules.)

Here in the UK they're legal to rent but not to buy.

They’re legal to buy and own and use on private land, and on public roads as long as you make sure they’re up to the regulations for powered road vehicles, which cheap ones usually aren’t, and you have a drivers license for them.

They’re only not legal to use on pavement and cycle paths as if they were bicycles.

This page is very readable:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/powered-transport...

I'm pretty sure this minority of countries is very much irrelevant vis-a-vis the future of manufacturing electric vehicles.

They're illegal in Toronto, too [0], but they're still prevalent due to the utter lack of enforcement.

[0] https://www.toronto.ca/services-payments/streets-parking-tra...

> Unfortunately they are illegal by default in much of the world but this seems to be changing.

Well, they are awfully dangerous - with such a tiny wheel radius, even a small pebble can flip the rider over the handlebars, while bicycles wheels are large enough to not flip even on some kerbs.

Given an option between a bicycle and a stand-up scooter, it's a no-brainer to choose the bicycle.

maybe we just need escooters with large wheels in the front?

No so great in climates that have 4 actual seasons.

They are banned on public transport in the UK as well, so that's another wrinkle in this plan. :D

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/london/e-scooters-banned-from-the...

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