Scooters Going for a Swim

**pocketchange** · August-23-22, 07:39 PM

Did I just walk down the Riverwalk on the day people went electric scooter fishing or is it a normal occurance to see at least of dozen of them that were pulled from the river covered in mud and seaweed. Can't imagine how many more are down there or how its a viable business as they have to be junk now.

**Zacha341** · August-24-22, 06:27 AM

^ Sounds like another sad example of vandalism and negation of things meant to be of service. I visited family living in a seeming decent subdivision lately and observed children riding a Walmart electric motorized scooter up and down the parking area! The Walmart not far away - yet the other side of a busy street.

Who knows how the scooter got to the town house area but the WHO lets their children play with a device not their own? Not purposed to be used as a toy?!

**Scottathew** · August-24-22, 08:24 AM

I'm torn on the scooters. I like the idea that they're a service that's available, but I don't like that the scooters are littered all over downtown by their users. Also, some people do not operate them safely and zoom up from behind pedestrians going way too fast.

**13606Cedargrove** · August-24-22, 08:34 AM

Respect for the property of others is a core value of our civilization. That includes everything from a penny dropped on the street by a passerby to scooters, to the property of large corporations such as restrooms in their establishments and to their equipment, such as shopping carts and handicap carts.

**EGrant** · August-24-22, 08:45 AM

I truly believe that what someone does with a shopping cart after they unload their groceries is the clearest example of someone's character.

There is zero benefit to a person for putting it back in the corral, other than for the good of others [[the cart collectors, other people's cars, etc). And there isn't any real consequence to just abandoning the cart next to your vehicle and leaving, especially when no one is around to see you do it. It's the difference between a selfish person and a selfless person. Tossing scooters into the river is similar.

**K-slice** · August-25-22, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by 13606Cedargrove

Respect for the property of others is a core value of our civilization. That includes everything from a penny dropped on the street by a passerby to scooters, to the property of large corporations such as restrooms in their establishments and to their equipment, such as shopping carts and handicap carts.

...And the complete lack of respect for others property by many in society today shows the direction we're headed.

That, and the pervasive mindset that intervention is a greater wrong than the destructive act in the first place.

**Lowell** · August-25-22, 02:35 PM

I think there should be are return to a station requirement, like the MoGo bikes, but those stations should be abundant and for all competitors. That would be good for the companies too as they wouldn't have as many people taking them to the riverfront and abandoning them there, a short toss from the river.

I was on Mackinac Island last week for the first time in three years and the number of electric powered bikes was striking. I don't recall any three years ago, now they're all over the place. My cousins, who live there year-around, complain of the increased speed but, like the allowed snowmobiles in winter, they appear to be there to stay.

**Zacha341** · August-25-22, 06:12 PM

Yes. Apparently the honor system ain't working. I use the red MOGO bikes and they're clearly marked that if you don't return and lock it back into the docking station once done you pay $1200! The rental is tied to your financial institution or money card - where you use an access code per ride - used when you sign up. At least that's how it went when I signed up.

I've not seen bikes left about. But those scooters are all over - discarded.

**Zacha341** · August-25-22, 06:51 PM

Yeah... one blew-past me just missing my elbow as I was walking on a not so busy sidewalk. LIKE really - do you mind? I guess joining in and riding one too is the solution!

Originally Posted by Scottathew

I'm torn on the scooters. I like the idea that they're a service that's available, but I don't like that the scooters are littered all over downtown by their users. Also, some people do not operate them safely and zoom up from behind pedestrians going way too fast.

**Dumpling** · August-26-22, 09:51 AM

Were all those scooters the LIME kind that people have to step over or around when they are walking on public sidewalks? If so, I get why these might be ending up in a river.

**sirrealone** · August-26-22, 11:52 AM

Originally Posted by Dumpling

Were all those scooters the LIME kind that people have to step over or around when they are walking on public sidewalks? If so, I get why these might be ending up in a river.

Why? Because they're in the way? If someone needs to move it, and the choices that pop into their head are to either push it aside or to throw it into the river, I mean, I can't even process the idea of choosing door number two.

**Dumpling** · August-27-22, 11:55 AM

Hopefully this response is only slightly condescending. I honestly don't know if someone would throw a scooter in a river as opposed to just pushing it aside just because it was in the way. [I'm someone who deals with street debris in Detroit on a weekly basis].

I am doing a bit of Googling to really get a handle on why others would throw scooters in the river. Others being, not people who deal with street debris in Detroit in a neighborhood that can have drug addicts and drug dealers in direct proportion to street debris in addition to some decline in resident taxpaying population and home values if the street looks trashed. Things like Courville containers and shopping carts could be used to transport valuables from your house to some nearby point where they could be exchanged for street drugs. Hence there are those who have zero tolerance both for people that look like they might do this and for items that look like they might be used to do this.

https://www.foxnews.com/tech/souther...ng-them-report

That article is from southern California from 2018. Another article on that same situation:

https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/n...an-california/

I don't have an Instagram account so I can't continue with "birdgraveyard":

https://www.instagram.com/birdgraveyard/?hl=en

This perp was just "intoxicated". Commenters were generally not in favor of tossing the scooter in the river, citing environmental pollution of the river.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWj1iUqBkes

I have not had a LIME scooter dumped in my front yard so far...but what would you do if that happened to you? For comparison, I did have someone leave a bicycle in my front yard once. After it was there for about three days and after checking with a few neighbors with children on the street, I contacted a NPO. It was taken away soon after. It may have been taken to an impound lot or less likely, returned to its owner.

Okay, so, I really wouldn't want to pollute a river, so in that case I might either contact a NPO or take the LIME to the closest Walmart or CVS, same as I've done with a shopping cart.

I was shooed off a doorstep near the HUB bicycle shop in Midtown several years back while waiting for a friend who had taken their bicycle inside the shop for repairs. Presumably that business owner was just being zero tolerance for anyone sitting on their step. It may have been that I was just in the way, same as a LIME scooter often is, or it may have been a street trash reaction. Guess I could go there sometime and ask their opinion?

In Germany, there is enough concern about scooter loss and environmental pollution that the scooters are being programmed to not end their rides near the Rhine River and to call for help if they should be immersed:

https://www.electrive.com/2021/06/17...e-river-rhine/

**royce** · August-27-22, 12:45 PM

Hey, I don't have time to check, but maybe this is a "challenge" on one of the social media sites. Let me know.

**Dumpling** · August-27-22, 01:09 PM

Would not be surprised to hear that it was some "challenge".

And then there's this idea, probably the hovering in air is impractical but repurposing cell towers as scooter hangars might happen some day.

https://twitter.com/semil/status/107...652994?lang=fi

**Dumpling** · August-27-22, 02:20 PM

In the New York City area, Citi Bikes end up in the river sometimes and grow barnacles sometimes. These probably belong to the credit card company of the same name. So if someone had been through an arbitration proceeding or had a credit card stop working suddenly they theoretically might take their frustrations out on a Citi Bike.

https://gothamist.com/news/barnacle-...ce-last-summer

It has been suggested that the barnacle bike was actually an art project.

Beverly Hills, California Mayor Julian Gold, MD, said that the drawbacks of the e-scooters are PUBLIC SAFETY and PUBLIC CLUTTER:

https://www.consumerreports.org/prod...s-in-its-path/

**wolverine** · August-28-22, 02:56 PM

Not uncommon. Divvy bikes end up in the lake in Chicago but they’re usually recovered fast enough before decay happens. It’s bad behavior probably by some drunk idiots. Though these scooters and bikes are more a kit of parts where components go through normal replacement cycles so anything that ends up damaged or vandalized is dismantled and rebuilt. So while it may not be much of an expense, we still don’t deserve nice things.