People keep throwing electric scooters into rivers and lakes

[dalton99a]

https://slate.com/technology/2018/12/electric-scooter-bird-lime-lakes-rivers-environment-vandalism.html

Bird Bath
Why do people keep throwing electric scooters into rivers and lakes—and what should companies like Bird and Lime do to stop them?
By April Glaser
Dec 10, 20183:44 PM



Oakland, California’s Lake Merritt is the oldest wildlife refuge in North America and home to dozens of bird species. Within its 3.4 miles of shoreline, it’s not uncommon to see great blue herons and snowy egrets soaring over flocks of bobbing ruddy ducks. But over the past year, another bird—well, a Bird—has joined the other lake denizens. Just in October, cleanup crews fished out of the lake more than 60 electric scooters, made by Bird and its competitor Lime as well as lesser-known comers like Scoot and Wind, according to James Robinson, executive director of the Lake Merritt Institute.* Robinson recently met with representatives from Lime and Bird as well as Oakland’s Department of Transportation to address what he’s calling a “crisis” for the lake.

Oakland’s not the only place you’ll find troubled waters. In Portland, Oregon, so many scooters have ended up in the Willamette River that some disgruntled Portlanders made a website, scootersintheriverpdx.com, that documents just what its URL promises: How many scooters have been thrown into the Willamette River? Portland police have responded to several reports of people throwing the scooters into the river. In Los Angeles, maintenance workers have reported seeing the electric conveyances tossed into the Pacific Ocean around Venice Beach, where Instagram shots of half-sunken scooters abound. In Spokane, Washington, two Lime scooters were found in the Spokane River in October, and Lime has fished its scooters out of the Trinity River in Dallas, too. In Indianapolis, council member Zach Adamson found one in the Broad Ripple Canal and lamented, “It’s not OK to throw scooters in our waterways.” In San Francisco, it’s become routine to see a Bird or Lime scooter washed up along the rocky shores of the Bay.

Bird and Lime pitch their devices as environmentally friendly alternatives to cars, since they’re electric and are attractive options for short trips within cities. But the companies have also taken a rapid approach to expansion, sometimes launching in cities without regulators’ permission. Even when local governments do sign off on the scooters—which users can rent with an app, and leave on any sidewalk when they’re done—it’s not clear how closely the companies are working with cities to ensure these new streetscape additions aren’t too nettlesome. It’s anyone’s guess why so many of these vehicles are ending up in lakes and rivers, but one reason might be that some people just find them enraging, or at least annoying enough to hurl into the nearest body of water. But that hasn’t slowed down the scooter-makers: Both Bird and Lime have raised hundreds of millions in venture capital funding, poising the companies to continue expanding across the country.

In places such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Raleigh, North Carolina, officials have moved to cap the number of scooters allowed on their streets. In Oakland, scooter company officials have met with the city multiple times and heard complaints from the nonprofit Lake Merritt Institute, which has argued that its staff should be compensated for their time and efforts to remove scooters from the lake. “While the companies did not directly address the problem of scooters dumped in the lake, they said that they would retrieve scooters within 24 hours when notified,” read the September Lake Merritt Institute newsletter following a meeting with Oakland’s Shared Mobility Committee. Robinson said in a more recent update that actions from that meeting haven’t stopped scooter-dumping.

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[RandySF]

1. I would prefer to throw the reckless operators into Lake Merritt

[KT2000]

2. this is just crazy

beyond trashing the scooters, obviously people don't have respect for waterways. This country has an over 100 year history of using waterways as garbage dumps. We are just now getting ready to get ready to clean them up. Scooter dumping is ridiculous. My bet is they are stolen and not worth much for resale.

[2naSalit]

5. people just don't have respect for anything

including themselves. You see it everywhere, it's inescapable even in the woods and the backcountry. I was in a couple major cities recently and those scooters and bikes were all over the place, everywhere. I'm not surprised that they end up in he waterways, like everything else.

[Liberty Belle]

3. Put signs up warning of big fines for doing this and also harm to wildlife;

I'm sure rusting Bird scooters pollute the water for real birds.

[2naSalit]

4. Not to mention the stuff in the batteries.

[JayhawkSD]

6. Why do you think the dumpers will care? nt

[JayhawkSD]

7. Scooters should be banned.

In San Diego people are injured almost daily by idiots driving these scooters, idiots who don't know how do drive them and fall off of them constantly, drive them into cars and pedestrians, make traffic swerve around them, etc. They do not know the meaning of safety in its most basic form, and almost none of them wear the most basic safety gear, even though the scooters have signs on them saying that helmets are required.

It culminated yesterday in a young man swerving and running into a building, incurring a brain injury that caused death shortly after arriving at the hospital. He was, of course, not wearing a helmet.

San Diego is littered everywhere with bikes and scooters dumped carelessly on sidewalks and in streets, blocking both vehicular and pedestrian traffic and making the city look like a junk yard. Both scooters and bicycles of the "sharing economy" should be banned.

[Liberty Belle]

9. The guy who was killed had been drinking; I wouldn't blame the scooter for the idiot on it.

That said, reasonable regulations are needed.

We have them here in La Mesa where I live now, but so far it seems to be working better. It might work better in a little town like this where people are mostly using them in lower-traffic areas and not late at night while bar-hopping.

[AllTooEasy]

8. The problem is the idiots, not the scooters

Don’t idiots hurt/kill or get hurt/killed via car accidents or in their own homes everyday in San Diego?