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BC students can't stop falling off their electric scooters, so school bans them
By adamg on Thu, 12/08/2022 - 9:40am
The BC Heights reports that a month after Boston College banned students from riding e-scooters indoors, it has now banished them - and those powered mono-wheel things - from campus completely, effective Dec. 22.
"A number of BC students have suffered injuries from e-scooter falls," mirroring similar trends at campuses across the country, officials told students this week, adding there's also a fire risk when their batteries are recharged.
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Comments
The cities around should
The cities around should follow the suit.
Statistics?
Not liking something is not the same as that something being dangerous.
Sounds like BU has data on this, but I'd like to see some incidence numbers for injuries.
Doesn't anybody...
walk anymore?
Young people need to walk unless they want to be overweight and have early diabetes in their futures. Sheesh!
Eh
There are many reasons to promote movement and decreased powered vehicle dependence without a message that some body sizes are better than others.
Oh come on now...
As a fat person, I can acknowledge that my "body size" is worse than other body sizes. Jizmo didn't say fat people were losers or anything like that. He said students shouldn't find ways to avoid moving around because that will lead to being overweight.
Unfortunately, Jizmo is wrong anyways. These escooters have a place for distances more than you're willing to walk but shorter than it's worth having to pull out a bike. They'd still have you out and getting more exercise than if you drove or ubered instead.
Exercise
Foot-powered kick scooters certainly provide exercise, but e-scooters don't (not even to the extent that e-bikes do, since you can still pedal them)
More than you think
Standing, walking, carrying...all take more energy than sitting and driving (the most likely alternative).
City versus campus
I don't think driving is an option on campus.
As for e-bike versus scooter, I've seen scooters ripping down the road at 20 mph and I know that their braking, stability, and ability to handle potholes is rather less than that of my ebike with hydraulic disc brakes and fat tires. That doesn't make them inherently unsafe, but merely fit for a different purpose.
Headline is off. From TFA:
Headline is off. From TFA:
In other words, no actual documented accidents on campus, only "almost" accidents.
The battery risk is real
It makes sense to prohibit them from inside buildings for that alone.
This is dumb
If you almost got run down by a car, what would be your reaction? That it doesn't count until you're a bad-smelling paste on the road?
It's right in the source article, right at the top
"A number of BC students have suffered injuries from e-scooter falls ..." according to the e-mail sent by BC administrators (which then goes on to discuss the potential risks of collisions and fires).
They walk in front of cars
They walk in front of cars and trains too, guess we’d better get rid of those too.
It’s called “Natural Selection” and it strengthens the species.
No, that's called bad driving
If you are in a congested area and there are crosswalks around you should not be driving faster than you can stop for pedestrians.
Sounds like you need to be retrained.
Natural Selection
If natural selection "strengthens the species", shouldn't all species be strong, since all are equally subject to it? Do all species get stronger and stronger? Is it all just up and up?
I'm sure that being clever is a survival trait, but not an essential one. Horseshoe crabs have been around for a quarter of a billion years. Almost everyone I know can out-think a horseshoe crab, but nonetheless I doubt that humanity is going to last that long.
We thwarted natural selection
By making drivers wear seatbelts and building cars that can withstand collisions. If drivers were in as much mortal peril as the pedestrians they mow down on a weekly basis, only good drivers would still be driving.
Oh man wait until they find
Oh man wait until they find out about cars
Last I checked...
...people don't typically drive cars on the campus sidewalks and other pedestrian-only walkways.
That’s what bike lanes are
That’s what bike lanes are for
When you fly off the scooter
You are closer to being
An Eagle
So...
So...a BC student?
Micromobility devices have their place...
Scooters get a lot of hate. But even this 50+ years old person finds them useful, particularly the ones that can be rented by the minute, for solving the "last mile" problem of getting home from my train station without resorting to a car.
For my daily commute, after some experimentation, I settled on a non-electric folding bicycle, which seems less dangerous, but I wouldn't want to see scooters banned in most places, nor electric bikes. Electrified mobility devices keep cars off the road and are good for the environment.
The focus should be on finding a way to ensure that battery-powered devices imported to the US are safe and not fire risks. And using mandatory software to limit the speeds of these devices, which is the law in parts of the UK. Beyond that, giving those on bikes and scooters separate lanes where they aren't tempted to ride on sidewalks is important. The lanes on Huntington Avenue in the Boston Medical Area are a great example.
Is there now a quadruple Eagle status?
BC High
BC
BC graduate school
BC broken eagle wing
The fire risk is probably the
The fire risk is probably the deciding factor for me.
That can be quantified, too
And there can be standards for such things.
My bike is currently charging in my garage. I'm not terribly concerned as it is a reputable brand, the battery meets UL standard 2849, and the charger is on the concrete floor in an open space and shuts off when the battery is full.
Yes
But homeowners care about their property. And you pay for insurance that requires fire safety standards. It is not unusual for a landlord to exclude things that are prone to problems. A dorm or big building could provide a safe area for charging bikes and scooters, too.