Originally Posted by
sumgy
I am a little confused whether we are talking about an electric scooter:
or an electric scooter
I have no problem with the former, not keen on the latter.
Well, me too, but that said, they both have a motor, an electric motor. They just brought those rental things to my town. The laws do not allow them on sidewalks and I think they are not allowed on the MUPs but I think they are allowed to clog up the bicycle lanes. The problem with allowing a motor powered vehicle is drawing a line in terms of speed, power, weight, appropriate braking power for the weight and potential speed capability. It is pretty easy to take a scooter with one motor in it and put another motor in it that has twice the power. Why not this, my Honda Monkey 125cc:
If the scooter is allowed, why not a Monkey? When I got it there was about 9.5 horsepower on tap, now with a cam, air box mod, an ECU flash and I am pulling about 12 now. It will only go like 60 or 70 MPH, is that a problem on a MUP? If you think people will not soup those things up, well, they will and you will have a 40 MPH scooter zinging by, electric or not. The fellow with the thread about the hands-off cyclists, wait until he gets passed by a Zip scooter, hands-off at 40 MPH. Well, there is an easy line to draw, you either are 100% human powered or you are not. If it has a motor or an engine, it belongs on the road, not mixing it up with human powered traffic, bicycles, pedestrians and the like.