Bikes, Scooters, Strollers, and other hazards

Cyn, it's not just Europe; the suburbs of So Cal are overrun with 13-15 year olds on motorized ebikes with no understanding of caution, or rules of the road and half the time are on sidewalks. It's proving to be a serious hazard.

Yep, last summer in Amsterdam, we watched an older woman get knocked down by a bike rider who never stopped to assist her. Thank goodness a lot of others did.

This relatively new phenomenon needs to be regulated. Scooters probably need to use bike lanes. When we were in Washington DC bikes and scooter were often on the sidewalks. You really need to stay alert. My favorite is someone on a bike who is looking down at their phone. As for someone walking while looking down on their phone, I'm tempted to let them run into me, but that would be the younger version of me.

Big Mike, I was thinking that last Thursday as we were navigating a very crowded SFO, trying to avoid all these people looking down at their phones. Only at my age I would probably be the one that went down….

Any vehicle with a motor needs to be in a traffic lane, not on the sidewalk. On my fairly busy street in an outer borough of New York, most of the motorized vehicles stay in the street, but it’s scary for me as a pedestrian when one turns up on the sidewalk and unexpectedly zooms up behind me. The kids on pedal scooters are bad enough—I’m always thinking, “Yeah, you’re wearing a helmet, but I’m not!”

I cannot tell you how much I hate Lime bikes in London- from people zooming past you on the pavement (I've almost been hit before, they come up silently so even without headphones in you hear nothing until it is past you), to people leaving them lying in the middle of the pavement- blocking the way for those with reduced mobility- and once one almost fell on my dog, to the kids who hack them to ride for free which emits an alarm that I hear up and down my street all day. There's also been a lot of reports of pretty bad injuries from these bikes, including broken legs, well covered by the website London Centric who also investigated how unsafe many of these bikes are, since they are not properly maintained: https://www.londoncentric.media/p/we-tested-50-lime-bikes-for-safety

I know in Paris they voted to ban the Lime scooters, I wish we could do the same!

Thanks for raising this issue, it's important for visitors to know about and be aware. I've also seen tourists using Lime bike who have no idea of UK traffic laws- a group almost hit us going thru a zebra crossing because they didn't know you're supposed to stop at those when a pedestrian is going thru!

They’re an absolute menace. The bikes and scooters are hacked so they can go faster than the legal limits. Electric scooters are illegal on public roads in the UK unless part of a hire scheme but that seems to stop absolutely nobody. And yes, they’re just dropped everywhere blocking the pavements and creating an eyesore.

It’s meant to get people out of their cars but a study done in Bristol showed that they mainly displaced journeys that would have been done on foot - so they’re making people less healthy and having no impact on traffic!

I haven’t had any problems with strollers. I think you’re probably seeing more because there are a lot of side by side doubles now that cope well with uneven paving and are narrow enough to fit through standard doorways. In the past double strollers were a lot more impractical.

Just a quick thought on the stroller comment…
It’s totally valid to be concerned about bikes and scooters on sidewalks — they can be fast, unpredictable, and genuinely unsafe in pedestrian spaces.

But strollers? That feels like a different category entirely. Parents using sidewalks to get around with their kids isn’t just expected — it’s necessary. Many of these will be locals just trying to go about their day. They move at walking pace and are part of normal foot traffic. Maybe they take up more space, but so does someone pulling a suitcase!

Let’s definitely talk about making sidewalks safer, but maybe let’s not group strollers in with moving vehicles. They're not the problem — and neither are the families using them.

Lime bikes aren't "an absolute menace". The percentage of people using them irresponsibly is very small. They've become an essential part of London transport in a way Boris Bikes never did.

Lime have clamped down on the parking issues fairly well I think. There are very few Lime bikes back parked badly these days compared to a couple of years ago because the app makes you park well. They have to keep on top of it to maintain a licence to operate. Bikes falling over or being knocked over after being parked is a thing, definitely. Limiting mobility of pedestrians on the pavement is a potential problem, but I have to admit I haven't seen many Lime bikes left in a way that happens more recently.

I maybe have a certain tolerance for low level antisocial behaviour because I live in a dense inner London borough. I'm used to people using bikes poorly. The benefits that Lime bikes have brought to millions far outweigh the issues as far as I can see though. It's changed the transport landscape in London for sure.

E-bikes and scooters are not going away. And in much of Europe they are regulated, and they have speed and use restrictions, and in some cases, require licensing. But tourists also need to pay attention to the fact that bike lanes exist, and they often run in and alongside walking spaces. In some bigger cities (Paris is a good example) they are a completely separate lane of traffic; and that's often ignored by people who either don't understand the regulations, or can't be bothered to learn them.

But those vehicles (because that's what they are) are taking the place of automobiles for many. They cost less, they get people where they need to be, and they're reliable. They are also seen as a "green" solution to transport. I can see the day when they require a license for both the vehicle and driver; as that's a tax waiting to happen.

Ebikes are more of a nuisance than the go-karts, mini-bikes, skateboards, razors, etc. that earlier generations had, but that's only because we've become more urban, and our kids have to work within their environment. But they're not going away, and they will be the future of personal transportation as long as cars get more expensive and public transport systems fail to meet the needs of individual commuters.

You want to resolve some of the issues, start working to define bike paths, and put some regulations in place for your neighborhood. But when you're wandering around on vacation remember, you're in their space; it's you who has to conform.

Oh goody! Another "vent" thread.

I'm another person who reviles motorized scooters, though I admit if they stay on the bike lane and watch out for slow, clueless pedestrians they're basically harmless. These people are lazy (they should be pedaling a bike!) but not really problematic if they obey the rules. In the cities we've visited this summer, they almost without exception have done so.

More hazardous are electric bicycles, especially when they're ridden in pedestrian areas by delivery people. Some of them go 30 - 35 mph and pose a serious danger.

Before I go, let me once again debunk the false notion that Amsterdam is a good pedestrian city. It's horrible for walking! I understand the imperative for pedestrians to avoid the bike lane, but in Amsterdam they're seldom clearly marked, and even more seldom actually observed by the cyclists. Amsterdam is a wonderful city, and everyone should go. But watch your step!

they may be well under control in London and Germany, but out here in the British provinces they most definitely are not.

Here we have VOI scooters and bikes, and except for leaving them across pavements or in a pile somewhere, they are mostly used correctly. Over 18, drivers licence, only on roads and bike lanes. Except the ones used by 12 year olds using a friend's borrowed phone. Driving against the flow of traffic, on pedestrian only pavements, on and off pavements and roads and two or three kids on one scooter (must be young or 2 would be the limit physically).

But much worse are the illegal ones (privately owned and illegal except on private land) with no lights, hacked to do 30 or 40 mph, and driven even worse. And worse than them are what pretend to be e-bikes but are electric wide tyred motorcycles with a throttle (and pedals for show only) which are modified to do in excess of 50 mph displaying all the above bad behaviour.

My disabled wife used to love to walk but she can't risk being on the pavements anymore with her sticks or walker.

Tough to put the genie back in the bottle...

Before TSA was, I would sometimes bring along a Razor-style scooter and stow it in the overhead on the plane. The beachside promenades of Nice and San Diego are doubly pleasurable at double the walking pace.

But as I enter the demographic that the New York Times calls the 'near-elderly' , my sympathy grows for peds who see these contraptions, especially those with motors, as interlopers. I'm sometimes taken by surprise, and discomfited.

There is a cloudy period of life somewhere in the late 30s where those on one side cannot walk in the shoes of those on the other. A tween really can't tell if that adult is 40 years old or 60 years old, and that senior citizen seems to treat anyone between 14 and 27 as though they were a teen.

While rolling around on the youthful side of the clouds we are bothered that so many people on the other side don't seem to know how to step aside or around other sidewalk users with the correct timing or lean angles. Or not tolerate minor physical contact like brushing shoulders or swiveling one's hips. I distinctly remember once on the 38 Geary bus bumping an elderly person sitting in one of the elderly person seats near the door with the scooter as i carried it past them, and I stopped and cheerily checked in -- Oops! Did I get you? So sorry!! -- and for the next 10 minutes they looked like they were about to cry or maybe file a police report. What gives? I was thinking. I said I was sorry. I really couldn't get my mind to go in the direction of thinking it might be more than a passing bump to someone who has some fragility and is conscious of taking care.

Similarly from the high side of the cloudy region. Are those kids nuts? Don't they realize someone could be coming out of a door onto the sidewalk with their head turned the other way? Inconsiderate, act like they are the center of the universe. Get knocked to the ground and you might face months of recovery. Younguns do not think about that -- if you fall down, you get back up and walk it off.

In April, I joined the Lyft bike rack rental system here in the Bay Area. So far I have only used the 'classic ' bikes, not the e-bikes, both because I agree with the above that motors are sort of cheating and because e-bikes cost more to borrow. I have a mental strategy for not overstepping (or rolling) the boundaries of either the young or the old. I do not wear a helmet, and I deliberately say to myself that I should be slow and careful. Every bike handles a little differently. I get passed in the bike lanes by people, mostly younger, who do a lot more riding than I do, and I use the bell a lot, when I'm on sidewalks like the Embarcadero in SF where those double strollers and distracted tourists are not paying attention to comings and goings. Also as mentioned above, most of the trips I use the bikes are replacing walking rather than the bus. But sometimes I am avoiding the bus.

There's a broader lesson to be learned here about empathy, community, and our duty to the common good, for sure, but there is another line of consideration involving convenience and how we have let that become too important.

While the various dangers pointed out are true…..I live a rural life in France and only have to watch for farm vehicles and occasional trail bikes. I can deal with congestion in cities on sidewalks and streets and just can’t get as excited.

Just an alternative opinion.