tandempower

I think it was Machka who asked in one of the dockless share threads why people don't just buy their own scooters instead of relying on share systems. This is a reasonable question, considering that scooters fold easily and so they can be carried on buses and other transit more easily than a bicycle.

So do you have a scooter that you carry with you when you take transit? If not, have you thought about getting one? What are factors and concerns that influence your decision? Is price/cost a factor? Do you think it would be too tedious/burdensome to tote a scooter around in addition to whatever else you have to carry? Would the availability of dockless sharing be the deciding factor in whether or not you would use a scooter and, if so, why?

What about the potential for personal scooters to make transit a more attractive/convenient option for more people? What factors do or would influence the general driving-dependent public? Would riding a scooter just seem too weird or out-of-character for most people, or are their less superficial factors? If people found themselves in a financial situation where they would greatly benefit from giving up driving for transit+scooter, do you think most people would embrace the option or just lament not having a car? What is it about car culture that eschews other options and always feels entitled to car ownership?

Machka 

Machka asked why people don't just have their own bicycles.

tandempower

Bicycles are a different issue. Even folding bicycles are difficult to carry on public transit. I once carried one on a Greyhound bus but I had to pack it in a box, which fell apart. Scooters fold up much smaller and you can carry them like a skateboard. In fact, I see scooters as a safer variation on skateboards because they have handlebars.

Personally, I've thought about getting a folding push scooter without any motor because I don't think they go much slower than riding a bike at a casual pace. Really it's just about the efficiency of rolling on ball bearings instead of walking. I just haven't gotten one yet because I don't use public transit that much and when I do, I enjoy walking anyway. I ride bikes for transportation mostly because they are so fast, but I might get a folding push scooter for when I take a bus to another city.

wolfchild

The only people I see on scooters are children who use them for fun and joy riding. I have never seen an adult using scooters for transportation.

Walter S

I-Like-To-Bike

I suspect healthy adults riding push/non motorized scooters for transportation purposes are rarer than hen's teeth; anyone have pictures of them that aren't staged for publicity or a promotion of some sort?

tandempower

Are you afraid to do things that are not already popular? If so, what are you afraid of? Ridicule for being 'different?'

I-Like-To-Bike

Good non-responsive, non-answer! Is that "critical thinking" in action?

Why not personal Pogo sticks or better yet "ride share" on dockless Pogo sticks? It would be suitably "different" enough for anyone who's apparent goal in life is to be "different". Equally impractical too! Even has the ascetic advantage of being wheel free. What's not to like?

tandempower

Wheels/rolling are the key to utilizing Newton's first law of inertia/momentum efficiently. Objects in motion can only tend to stay in motion if they are not acted upon by external force (i.e. friction).

Bikes are good because you can pedal them and use gears to convert leg strength into meaningful forward impulses at even higher speeds. Push scooters lack this gearing so they are only really good to roll at walking/jogging speed, but they are much more efficient than jogging, because they roll while you just stand there and add momentum with the inertia of your body weight.

Push scooters are more efficient than bikes to carry because they fold into a smaller/lighter package. Folding bikes are heavier and bulkier than push scooters.

Skateboards also give you the rolling advantage of wheel bearings, the same as bikes and scooters, but they don't have handlebars so they are more difficult to control and thus more dangerous.

Pogo sticks have to stop and change direction each time they land so they are not efficient for lateral motion.

I-Like-To-Bike

Does that explain why push scooters are equally non used by adults for transportation, except for the rare "adult" character who uses a push scooter in order to "be different"?

tandempower

No, that's just the physics/mechanics. What you are talking about involves culture and psychology.

Also, I never said anything about riding a push-scooter to 'be different' because I would never choose a form of transportation as a statement of similarity or difference with other people, real or imagined.

What I asked you was whether you are afraid that riding a push scooter when no else was was because you are afraid of 'being different?' In other words, are you so concerned about social conformity that you would avoid a certain mode of transportation because it is not popular?

I-Like-To-Bike

Of course you never said anything about a desire "to be different". It is a given, based on your posting history.

Are you the fellow so afraid of posting anything personal about himself because of thoughts about conspiracies and enemies who might use such information, but feels free to ponder/ask off-the-wall wacky personal questions of others based on his own fabricated "thinking".

tandempower

You shouldn't worry about 'being different.' Everyone is different from everyone else. Social-cultural conformity is a bad basis for making choices.

I definitely don't trust everyone and why would it be a good idea to do so? All I asked you, on the other hand, is if you would avoid riding a scooter because you are afraid of 'being different?' Are you really so afraid of social nonconformity?

I-Like-To-Bike

Answer your own bizarro question based on the same pseudo psychological assumptions and projections that your so-called question is based upon.

BTW, here is a question for you from the same playbook of so-called constructive discussion that you seem to prefer, "Have you stopped beating your [wife/dog/whatever] yet?"

tandempower

Ok, so you don't want to discuss scooters in a thread about scooters. So why not just stay out of the thread, then?

noisebeam

I have a relative who uses manual scooter for the home to public transport leg. Also a friend who skateboards to work

https://www.cnet.com/news/electric-s...ransportation/

I-Like-To-Bike

See https://www.bikeforums.net/20502531-post6.html
Do YOU have any pictures of a healthy adult riding a manual/push scooter for transportation that wasn't staged for a promotion or a news article? Do you ride a push scooter? Do you know any adults who ride a push scooter for transportation? Tell us where your knowledge about their usefulness comes from? Is it the product of a "critical thinking" session?

Where do you get your theories about fear and conspiracies driving people who don't fall for your dreamy schemes about personal transportation? "Critical thinking"?

tandempower

First of all, putting 'critical thinking' in quotes to ridicule it is uncritical. Second, basing your assessment of push scooters on their relative popularity is uncritical.

If you go back and read my post explaining the simple physics of rolling taking advantage of inertia, as per Newton's first law, you will see a very clear simple example of using critical thinking to analyze why you can sustain a higher average speed with a push scooter than by walking, or jumping on a pogo stick. You may not appreciate clarify because you prefer drunken thought-conformity, but never say that it wasn't explained to you.

prathmann

350htrr

The scooter on the left actually "may" be usefull for transportation... but, the scooter on the right is a total "fail" IMO for transportation... JMO based on the size of wheels and stem length for actual use as a human powered vehicle… JMO

badger1

About sums it up (back in 2015): https://www.elitedaily.com/humor/adu...photos/1146376

/thread

indyfabz

I have, and I am not talking just Amish.

indyfabz

Snap! I have seen them here in the big city plenty of times.

Walter S

The tiny wheels mean hitting small obstacles at speed may include radical changes to the arangment and constitution of your genitalia.

Walter S