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Comment by ClumsyPilot | Hacker News Reader

I think e-scooter like xiaomi ones works better for majority of population and is also foldable

eScooters are amazing. I wouldn’t last 5 minutes on a skateboard, but I’ve done 1000s of kilometres on an eScooter without incident. I think they should be much more popular where the infrastructure exists.

As a counterpoint, every 1500kms I've had a fall, though usually from bad road, not knowing where the curb cut was, inattentiveness and asphalt bumps, and once, the scooter's folding latch was too loose and the scooter folded while I was riding (at low speeds).

I can definitely recommend falling on grass or mud rather than concrete or asphalt. ;-) And if you can't run off the scooter, rolling sometimes helps.

Even after my experiences crashing on a scooter, I still love riding them. Suspension can help you keep your balance a bit better, but there's always a failure point that's possible to hit if you're not ready for it.

I suspect e-bikes are a bit more stable than scooters, especially with bigger, fatter wheels, but then, you can stick a leg out or run off a scooter, whereas doing either of those things at speed is a bit harder sitting on a bike. And it's a different feel for the road/sidewalk.

Would you say that e-scooter wheels are too small? That's the first reaction I get when I see one. Maybe child BMX wheels instead?

Even bigger, fatter wheels might help, like car tires or some e-bikes.

But honestly if we are blue sky dreaming for a second - I wonder if there will come a time when a two wheel kick scooter can self-balance, such as by using more wheels in a different configuration or by using some other kind of board or motor technology to stay balanced more of the time. If a scooter also had the ability to predict if it was going to crash into a curb or pothole or if there were more safety features, even maybe better jackets and jeans that have padding in all the right places to support falls, I’d think we’re moving in the right direction. The gotcha is that we’ve had time to understand what bikes and cars need for safety but we haven’t had as much time to understand what makes for a safer scooter ride yet. Likewise e-bikes too, if you ask me. And jury’s still out as to whether or not bikes or cars have “solved” their safety issues completely.

I should say that scooters are definitely still improving. A new latch design is slightly better than the old one, suspension can help maintain balance in some situations but not others, and some scooters have anti-skid technology so the front and back wheels always rotate at the same speeds at the cost of a loss of power going up hills sometimes.

Short of a true hoverboard, the answer may come in emulating wingfoils on the ocean. A third wheel drops down at speed and pushes the scooter deck into the air. Like lowering a plane undercarriage. So an e-unicycle below the e-scooter. That creates a buffer if a pothole or kerb is hit - the wheel swings back into its holding compartment and the e-scooter wheels make contact again.

Hey, and why not even hold a wing up when the battery is low!? That can also charge it up!

I really don't know.

They are fold able but certainly more clumsy when I see them on the train. Also a lot more expensive and yet another thing you gotta charge and eventually replace a battery for. Its also a 30lb hunk of metal still, not everyone can comfortably tote that up and down train station steps all day. Most people I see don't even fold their escooter on the train just hold the handle, roll it in and have the tail out and let people deal with stepping over it. Makes me think transit as we know it wouldn't even work if everyone got one of these things or an ebike and took up so much extra space as a result.

> Makes me think transit as we know it wouldn't even work if everyone got one of these things or an ebike and took up so much extra space as a result.

I’ve been wondered something like this too when I see people bring their scooters into a restaurant, the gym or other indoor spaces. I get that you don’t want it stolen but it would untenable if everyone did it.

Take a portion of the space set aside for car parking, perhaps? (God forbid.)

That doesn’t solve the theft problem.

depends on what you replace the space with. Bike lockers exist and are awesome.

My theory is the number of people in a city willing to commit bike theft is finite, and more bikes in public isn't going to draw out very many more thieves out of the woodwork since bikes are already easy to quickly find to steal in public. That means if the world changes and you get everyone biking, rate of bike theft drops down low enough where its something most people don't think of, like how grand theft auto is an extremely rare occurrence despite there being plenty of expensive cars parked on the street.

At that point I suspect there would be dedicated parking - on the light rail near me there is a spot for luggage with ceiling hooks for hanging your bike

Yeah some train cars do have a dedicated spot for bikes and bulky stuff, even with a little bike sticker on the door to label them as such. But It still comes at a big cost. I'd say in the space three people with three ebikes can fit, you can probably fit at least three times as many people standing and hanging on the pole. Plus in the chaos of the few seconds the train waits with the doors open they can be a hassle and are sometimes even a source of door delays moving past people and unloading all this equipment.

Having had an electric skateboard and ridden scooters very little I wonder..

if you crash on a scooter, is the crash and possible recovery complicated by the handlebar in your way?

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