In my city (not NYC), as a heavy walker, the "e-bikes" and "e-scooters" have recently gotten much more threatening than cars.
It's normal for these motorized vehicles to be speeding down the narrow sidewalks, and also speeding through crosswalks on red.
Where there are bike lanes, these motorized vehicles have started using them like their own express lanes, including ignoring red lights (like many bicyclists do, but this time motorized).
They also often just barely miss pedestrians, seemingly by intention, like they're confident they can control it and won't slip, and so don't leave much safety margin.
When you're on foot, I think being hit by one of these at speed will probably cripple or kill you.
I've also seen "e-bikes" that look suspiciously like full-sized electric motorcycles, cruising along sidewalks to beat traffic. Sometimes these are obviously delivery drivers or couriers.
Also, I might be noticing a bit more of the random most obnoxious non-motorized bicyclists on the sidewalk than usual. If so, I don't know whether they're emboldened by the e-bike and scooter people they see, or it's all the bike rental stations on the sidewalk now, or something else.
Ideally, I want to see people behave responsibly, just because they're conscientious and decent.
When that fails, and the behavior will almost inevitably lead to life-altering injury or death for someone else, then we probably need the government to step in.
The article contrasts with lax enforcement for cars, and I'd say we need to also enforce cars more. It's gotten worse in recent years here. It used to mostly be many cars not using turn signals, and a convention of a few cars running every red, and people just learned to be careful of the unofficial rules many follow. Now, watch for one light on a busy intersection in town, and you might see half of people on cars moving through the intersection sidewalks while looking at a phone/tablet (sometimes even hands on the device, to the detriment of steering ability).
There's also a popular belief on local online forums that car drivers involved in crashes with bicyclists are rarely punished. Before the surge of e-bikes and scooters causing their own problems and precedents, I used to wonder whether some of the irresponsible bicyclist behavior was due to an oppressed defensive mindset from cars, turned combative. Now I have to wonder whether the recklessness of the motorized bikes and scooters is contributing.
"Massholes" [1], and their kin from other states, have discovered the motorized "bike", it's in some ways even more dangerous than the car, and we need to change the culture, before healthy walkers end up confined to wheelchairs or morgues.
It's normal for these motorized vehicles to be speeding down the narrow sidewalks, and also speeding through crosswalks on red.
Where there are bike lanes, these motorized vehicles have started using them like their own express lanes, including ignoring red lights (like many bicyclists do, but this time motorized).
They also often just barely miss pedestrians, seemingly by intention, like they're confident they can control it and won't slip, and so don't leave much safety margin.
When you're on foot, I think being hit by one of these at speed will probably cripple or kill you.
I've also seen "e-bikes" that look suspiciously like full-sized electric motorcycles, cruising along sidewalks to beat traffic. Sometimes these are obviously delivery drivers or couriers.
Also, I might be noticing a bit more of the random most obnoxious non-motorized bicyclists on the sidewalk than usual. If so, I don't know whether they're emboldened by the e-bike and scooter people they see, or it's all the bike rental stations on the sidewalk now, or something else.
Ideally, I want to see people behave responsibly, just because they're conscientious and decent.
When that fails, and the behavior will almost inevitably lead to life-altering injury or death for someone else, then we probably need the government to step in.
The article contrasts with lax enforcement for cars, and I'd say we need to also enforce cars more. It's gotten worse in recent years here. It used to mostly be many cars not using turn signals, and a convention of a few cars running every red, and people just learned to be careful of the unofficial rules many follow. Now, watch for one light on a busy intersection in town, and you might see half of people on cars moving through the intersection sidewalks while looking at a phone/tablet (sometimes even hands on the device, to the detriment of steering ability).
There's also a popular belief on local online forums that car drivers involved in crashes with bicyclists are rarely punished. Before the surge of e-bikes and scooters causing their own problems and precedents, I used to wonder whether some of the irresponsible bicyclist behavior was due to an oppressed defensive mindset from cars, turned combative. Now I have to wonder whether the recklessness of the motorized bikes and scooters is contributing.
"Massholes" [1], and their kin from other states, have discovered the motorized "bike", it's in some ways even more dangerous than the car, and we need to change the culture, before healthy walkers end up confined to wheelchairs or morgues.
[1] https://www.fodors.com/world/north-america/usa/massachusetts...