Remember when scooters first started arriving in San Diego?
It was more like an invasion of ants spreading through a kitchen. First a few dozen, then a few hundred and then a few thousand,
Scooters were piling up, literally at times, at intersections all across the downtown area and in Pacific Beach and elsewhere, sometimes blocking entrances to stores and businesses.
Then the crashes of scooters began happening. sometimes very serious, even fatal a few times. And that’s when calls for changes became widespread.
As one woman put it to the San Diego Union Tribune, “this is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen in Mission Beach.”Now that’s saying something.
So, the scooter experience in San Diego led to regulations for scooters in San Diego.Regulations that went into effect in July that require scooter companies to keep them in certain scooter parking areas and to slow them down using geo fencing technology in busy areas.
And now that the San Diego City Council this week has voted to ban e-scooters and motorized bikes on the beach area boardwalks, the people who spoke at the council meeting are a lot happier.
The scooter companies may not be as happy because the regulations that have been in effect already have dramatically reduced scooter ridership over the last few months.
No matter what the future holds, to keep the scooters as alternatives to cars and to keep everyone happy and safe, the scooter companies and scooter users need to take personal responsibility for how they operate what they operate.
(Photo credit 10News)