Long time readers of this blog know that I love to take the temperature of one issue or another by simply looking around. Weather – Look outside.. Automated Vehicles and electric cars – check out the neighborhood…Is the Metro popular – count the number of people on the train as it whizzes by…Who will be elected – ask the guy who is fixing my plumbing or works in the next cubicle… Never rely on the media or ‘experts.’
I find I have a track record as good as some, and better than most.
In this case, let’s discuss first mile, last mile micro transportation, scooters and bikes.
There was a time when you couldn’t drive down Venice Boulevard in West Los Angeles without seeing numerous people, mostly young, scooting along the street in electric scooters. They were everywhere, sometimes even in my front yard.
I noticed the other day that I hadn’t seen a Bird or Lyme scooter for a few weeks. I checked this out with a couple of neighbors and we simply couldn’t remember when we saw someone riding one of them. Are they on the way out?
We do see more and more bicycle rentals. Is that because they are perhaps safer and easier to handle than the scooters? Or were the scooters a fad and will they just fade away, to be followed by the rental bikes.
You read it here first.
JVH
