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Electric scooters, awesome or awful?
08/09/2024
20mins
Phani Kumar S
BUSINESS,AI
Primarily speaking, it was San Francisco which made electric kick scooters vandalized in a lot of different ways. In fact, it is common for residents of the Los Angeles to be throwing their electric scooters away due to frustration.
While at the same time, we can see startups such as Lime, Pin, Skip, and Bird popping up and producing large fleets of scooters on a daily basis. It looks like a compromise is being found.
Nevertheless, we have got to accept the fact that Electric scooters are indeed very beneficial for a number of people. These vehicles serve as the source of last minute commute and you do not even have to break a sweat such as in riding a bicycle. Apart from that, you will also not have to worry about your vehicle getting stolen. Nevertheless, there are a number of problems that the electric scooter sharing fleets have caused for people in cities. This is primarily because of the way these scooters are used by the public. So let us consider all the pros and cons of electric sharing scooters to see whether they are awesome or awful.
Whether these rides are awesome or awful, you are the one to decide!
Pros of electric scooters
The first and major benefit of an electric scooter is rather obvious. It offers a very easy way of commuting through distances that are short, over the last minute. Hence, they serve as a great emergency vehicle for quick travelling around the city. As a result of this, you will not have to worry about your parking costs or traffic jams. Moreover, electric scooters offer a cheap ride. On average, an electric scooter ride will cost a person $1 for a single trip along with a base rate of 15 cents per minute. Nevertheless, it is fun to ride these sleek vehicles.
Apart from that, manufacturers and startups argue that these vehicles can be used to get demographic data regarding the areas in which the vehicle was mostly used for commuting. Such data can suggest better city planning.
Apart from that, with the rise of such fleet management companies, new job opportunities may be created for the working class.
Cons of electric scooters
As we have said earlier, electric scooters are not perfect at all. Rather, there is a danger that is growing fast. Since there seems to be a non-stop race between fleet management companies and manufacturers, it is likely that these scooters will be installed with hardware and software solutions that are not very reliable. This in turn, could potentially lead to accidents.
Another danger is moving too fast through a busy street. While cities have not banned these vehicles all together, it still may take a while to get an approval for their legality on the streets.
Mostly, major cities worry that the public spaces will be filled with electric scooters that are broken just as it happened with electric bikes in China. Moreover, the reliability of electric scooters is yet another thing that is in question.
Published:08/09/2024
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