Guess by all the talk, we need separate, segregated lanes for streetcars, automobiles, trucks, bicycles, e-bikes, e-scooters, mobility scooters, etc.. Oh, and something for pedestrians.
I think the bike infrastructure is the mic-drop IMHO.
I almost think that Lime/Bird carefully selected their scooter size, weight, manoeverability intentionally to make enough cyclists love them, and not mind them in cycle infrastructure. Witness all those loud pedestrians complaints (e-scooters on sidewalks), but far fewer fewer loud complaints by by cyclists (e-scooters in bike lanes).
Very clever razor-and-blades strategy. Bleepingly brilliant.
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Also, compare Calgary vs Edmonton. Night and day clarity about the non-issue of bike infra, but the concern of sidewalk infra. The complaints are equally there, complaining about e-scooters on sidewalks, no matter if they're allowed or not. But almost nobody (drivers, cyclists, pedestrians) are complaining about Lime/Bird kick style e-scooters staying inside bike infrastructure. They were flowing nicely when they chose bike infrastructure.
Even for those who are unwinnable over, most cyclists who are e-scooter haters (pre-Lime/Bird arrival) -- suddenly go mostly silent for the Lime/Bird
line-item exception -- once they actual-arrive in their home cities that they actually live in -- and get a week or two of experience -- practically all of them unamiously agree that they're far by the least annoying "scooter-named" object in bike lanes. Even if they still hate them, albiet now more muted than their prior assumption. And such haters are few in numbers. Thusly, it falls off the Top 100 Complaints about Lime/Bird quickly, after actual arrival.
Likewise, this mirrors my actual cyclist experience;
I get throughly annoyed by Vespas and Mopeds in my bike lane, but I didn't mind Lime scooters in my bike lane. They were nimble and compact -- went roughly similar speeds -- very easily alertable -- feels equally as exposed (e-scooter/cyclist) and take predictably similar risks -- brakes and accelerates very similarly at stoplights -- and comfortable overtaking (as cyclist or e-scooter) -- and comfortable undertaking (as cyclist or e-scooter).
In addition, consider that the profile of a Bird/Lime e-scooter is slightly narrower than a bicycle -- the handlebars are only 70% the width of a mountain bike. The rest of the scooter is much narrower than the width of a human body, and have zero pedal protrusions with no worry about colliding feet with. In fact if a collision of a rider rudely getting in my way unexpectedly,
As a cyclist, I'd rather accidentally collide with a kick-style e-scooter than a bike (speed and vectors being equal).
In my 4-city experience, I found e-scooters respectful in bike lanes (me as cyclist) but more annoying on sidewalks (me as pedestrian). Since kick scooter users are far more vulnerable to injury than fakevespa/mopeds -- kick e-scooter users are much more alert than fakevespa and moped riders too.
So cyclists notice that they are the most-respectful-and-aware objects in bike lanes that have with "scooter' in their name. Because of their similar vulnerability, they are much more cyclist-respectful in all 4 cities that I have e-scootered and cycled in. Cyclists do feel vulnerable from fast mopeds and fast fakevespas, but neither cyclists nor kick style e-scooters feel nearly as vulnerable to each other.
In the complaint streams, there is a clear bone of contention about e-scooter-vs-pedestrian tension, but surprisingly relatively little for e-scooter-vs-cyclist! And even at that, most of the contention is "resentment at co-opting the infrastructure" because of the increase in riders in the lane. But it's equal annoying congestion whether bike congestion or bike+escooter(kick-style) congestion, one city I was in had a mix of 15 cycles and e-scooters at a traffic light in a very wide multiuse trail at a red light on an artery. It gracefully flowed at green, probably slightly more gracefully than if they were all 15 bicycles of varying speeds and abilities. The point I am trying to make, is it didn't make the feel of bike infrastructure worse, count-for-count.
Now, let's have a Chaos Conversation about 35kph turbo rockets (er, "crime on wheels") on sidewalks, startling me as a pedestrian.... And a Chaos Conversation about tipped-over e-scooter clutter, shall we... (Thankfully the Bird Two model has a kickstand intentionally designed to be more tipover resident, more durable to have a smaller cradle-to-grave carbon footprint -- I bet climate-swingy Toronto gets this this model instead).
And perhaps safety and injuries is an issue -- the strain on a health care system versus savings from the mobility increase benefits -- may belong in the conversation. Safety risks and e-scooter injuries deserves to be a Top100 complaint and can be a hard difficult discussion. Understood. That said, it is chiefly risk to self. I'll take risk responsibility when I choose to Lime/Bird. But Lime co-existing in bike infrastructure? I don't think it even registers as a Top10, or even a Top100, complaint.
Nontheless, they have gained bicycle allies in Bird/Lime e-scooter lobbying because of these influences and "designed-to-be-friendly-to-other-cyclists-as-possible" nature. Cities now considering building extra cycle infrastructure thanks to kick-style e-scooters --
it increased mobilityshare ridership by 4x in Calgary almost literally overnight (July 2019 statistics). They're quickly winning over cyclist allies as a result. Cyclists with actual experience with Limes/Birds indicate they're mostly (okay | tolerating | encouraging) of them, compared to vespas/moped style mobility units.
It almost seems intentional by Lime/Bird -- "sizing" them perfectly for cyclists to welcome them -- including minimizing friction with cyclists who don't plan to use them --
to the point of city funding increased bike infrastructure thanks to kick-style e-scooters increasing demand.
That's enough for a mic drop, no?
