It appears that every child under the age of 14 in New York City has forsaken the ancient custom of “walking” from place to place. Instead, the kids roll to and fro on these little metal scooters. They have rollerblade-type wheels, little itty-bitty handlebars, and they can be folded up into a very small package when not in use. Thus their popularity.
Anyway, since this mini-craze started, I’ve seen many scooter kids flying down the sidewalks at high speed. A couple days ago, I saw a young moppet take out a stack of newspapers in front of a Korean bodega. This morning took the cake, though, as a little boy ran over the tip of my big toe, somehow managed to avoid wiping out, and continued down the block without so much as an “excuse me.”
Is this happening in other cities?
I say Rudy Giuliani should ban these things on the sidewalks and confine them to the streets. I think scooter kids and cab drivers will get along quite nicely. And if they don’t play nice and share the road, so what? They can Darwinize one another. Won’t bother me…
The sad thing is it’s not just children. Losers in suits are riding them too. A classic headline in a magazine my wife bought: “Are Scooters the New Black?”
Most of the time I see them on the bicycle paths. Not only are they congesting the paths, but the general speed on the paths have been goofed up. Bikers share the path with rollerbladers’ while walkers’ and joggers’ have a path all their own. What’s happened with the biking and blade path is that the speeds have changed from generally two distinct speeds to three and sometimes four. Scooter people tend to be slower than the bladers but can’t use the walking/jogging path. This causes more congestion and more passing by the bikers’ and bladers’, setting up more situations for accidents and collisions. Add to the fact that most are kids who can’t control the damn things and are all over the path, and your setting up some big-time colisions (I’ve been close to whiping out a couple of kids myself).
But, like anyone other path user, they have the right to ride them etc., and I don’t have much of a problem with them. However, I think some of these parents could stop grinning like a proud parent and teach their kids some manners on these things, but I tend to ask for too much.
On a related note, I’ve heard some friends mention that New York has become innudated with business men and older people riding them in the streets to avoid congestion. In that case, having visited a few times, I can see the scooters advantage.
But the bottom line? Scooter people: Have the same courtesy for others around you that they have for you.
I was actually considering buying one of these myself. They seem kinda cool to me. Don’t know about a gas powered one though, that just doesn’t seem right.
On a side note: Speaking of gas powered scooters, I was passed the other day by a guy on a… ready for this!.. an electric skate board. Myself and a small group of bikers were cruising around the lake, doing about 13mph, according to my speedometer, when I noticed a skateboarder gaining ground on me. The odd part was, he wasn’t using his feet. He was just kinda standing on the thing hauling out the mail.
Sure enough, he passes me. I notice in his hand a clicker type thing and a distinct whir when he passes. I look at the board and see he has some batteries and a motor or two rigged to the board. It was a cordless remote control to boot!
Again, the guy never used his feet. He just stood there and began passing the bikers in front of me. It was funny watching their reaction. A quick glance back, another, and finally a look back in surprise. He’d whip by and the bikers would look around and kinda get pissed. A few of us tried to keep up with the guy. But he’d look back, put on the juice, and he was gone.
If that isn’t defeating the purpose, I don’t know what is.
The gas powered ones (Go-Peds) are just the coolest things, and the only way to get through downtown San Francisco on Critical Mass nights.
Unfortunatly the youngsters threaten to ruin them for everybody. It’s become fashionable to make them faster and louder by screwing with the muffler and air intake and generally bieng reckless.
Sewage plant boss was on the local news funnies this morning.
He’d got his workers them scooter things so that they can get round the plant faster, and teh guys looked like they were having a great time.
Nah, they’re not quite that expensive, handy. I saw an electric scooter at Sharper Image in SF for $540 or so, and those guys tend to be kinda high.
Here’s a link; http://www.sharperimage.com/ProductDisplay.jsp?name=JD021
I’m getting one for Xmas, if i’m a good boy. And I’ll be the judge of if i’m a good boy or not.
Happy scooting!
Peace,
mangeorge
BTW, THespos, looks like your rant might have backfired.
Might as well join in on the fun!
TIME ELAPSED SINCE I QUIT SMOKING:
Four months, three weeks, two days, 23 hours, 7 minutes and 27 seconds.
5838 cigarettes not smoked, saving $729.82.
Extra time with Drain Bead: 2 weeks, 6 days, 6 hours, 30 minutes.
When I was a kid I had a “soapbox” scooter, with huge (now) 8" wheels. The soapbox (fruit crate) was the dashboard, and a 2"x2" stick was the handlebars.
I just loved it and took it everywhere, but then I could only go two blocks from home at the time, just to the candy store and playground.
The first time I saw one I thought to myself “Now there’s a nifty thing! How zippy cool! And on these flat streets it’d be a doddle (I used to live in big-mountainous-hill country)”
And then a few days later it came to my attention (as I looked left and right) that these damn things were everywhere, and their uniqueness factor suddenly dropped to zero.
Still quietly considering getting one, but they’d be a bastard to lug around on a casual window-shopping day.
well, dang, now i find out. i just ordered an evil scooter. it seem the thing to do after a disasterous 12 mile hike just to buy a birthday present. around mile 9 i thought i should get one of those scooter things. i’m hoping the blisters are healed before my new scooter arrives.
i think the advantage of the scooter over the bike is you don’t need to lock it down, should you decide to take an alternate route of transportation you don’t have to worry about it, just fold up and go. i have heard horrour stories of people who tried to get a bike onto a bus or train.
A couple days ago I went to a toy store with a friend and saw this and could not help myself from riding it all over the Kids-R-Us store. It was fun! But the wheel are so tiny I do not think it would work on any surface that is not totally smooth.
I thought those scooters looked cool at first too, even if they were horribly bulky even in their collapsed form. I always wished someone would invent a rollerskate or in-line skate with retractable wheels. Then I came across these and got angry, because apparently someone had stolen my idea. The bastards.
They look like lots of fun, though, and practical too. The only problem I can see is that I’m already pretty tall, and they look like they’d add at least another three inches. They’re probably heavy, too. But those are small prices to pay for being able to glide gracefully down any hill I might encounter (or swerve into traffic and get myself killed, more likely).