Anyone ride an electric scooter? (vroom vroom)

[Walwen]

I am highly considering getting an electric scooter. My walk to work is just under two miles, slightly hilly, on a bike path besides a fast road. This is fine and the electric scooter would mostly be about time efficiency.

However, distance to a bus stop is 5 miles from my house. I do not like to walk that far, especially since after I go bus into town and do whatever I have to do, that 5 mile walk home feels very long and I am usually very tired.
If I can electric scooter to the bus stop, that pretty much unlocks the whole city for me to travel for just the cost of electricity and a 40 dollar a month bus pass (and potential repairs/upkeep.) I am also pretty sure I can charge my scooter AT work, as my coworker already charges his e-bike without anyone batting an eye.

Bike is not an option (we are archrivals.) I CAN skateboard and have very good balance so I don't think I'd have an issue with an electric scooter. Also most scooters fold and then I can just pick it up and carry it: I find this a lot better than having to worry about locking up a bike and putting it on the bike rack on the bus, even if it weighs 40+lbs.

Anyone have recommendation for what scooters are good value for money? I am really not sure how much to spring for. I don't want to get a top-of-the-line decked out scooter but also want one with a good suspension, enough to be fun to ride not some chinese bullcrap. Thinking 500-1000 range. But I am open to any and all electric scooter experiences!

[guitarplayer]

Nice take @Walwen, I have been considering folding bike / folding e-bike (if there is such a thing) for the same purpose but somehow never thought of a(n e-)scooter. Obviously it would be way more compact than any sort of bike. Depending on the size when folded and weight, this could be a very versatile tool.

I will be following with interest.

[loutfard]

I have been considering folding bike / folding e-bike (if there is such a thing)

The Brompton electric is expensive to purchase, but good quality. I can't say how maintainable the battery is though.

[Frita]

I thought of you this morning, though I am cautious about reviews as cloaked advertising: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/revi ... c-scooter/

Our community has Bird electric scooters for rent. (I have not tried them. Trying my son’s non-electric scooter when he was a pre-teen circumvented that.) Do you have something similar to pilot usage and see if it’s for you? Do you see others in your area using them? If so, it would be interesting to learn their experiences.

[Walwen]

Thanks everyone: I will make sure to give updates!

This video is what I keep watching over and over trying to decide what to spring for. The guy personally has all the scooters he is reviewing. I hate all those "Top Ten Scooters For 2023" where it's just a content mill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsC8Fd7Hb1w

There's no scooter rentals in my area, surprisingly.

I used to see quite a few people with electric scooters on campus, and when I walked to work, there was always this guy going to class on an electric unicycle thing. Just one big wheel with a pedestal on top, with the "control bar" between his knees. It looked a little too... phallic for my liking. And he only drove slightly faster than walking speed. But the electric scooter guys? Oh I envied them, especially as the path to campus was a nice soft downhill curve.

One of my coworkers has an electric bike and he sings its praises. Charges it at work for free, too.

Something I learned, that I guess makes sense, is that a bike helmet is probably not appropriate, and I need a motorcycle style helmet instead. I am not that worried about going over the handbars and falling off the bike path. I am worried about crossing the major road my house is on, and being hit by a truck going 60mph. The path to work is very very simple- besides that ONE unavoidable road crossing, which in itself is ten times as dangerous as the rest of the trip combined. Bike helmets are not made to protect for high speed crashes.

[mathiverse]

Something I learned, that I guess makes sense, is that a bike helmet is probably not appropriate, and I need a motorcycle style helmet instead. I am not that worried about going over the handbars and falling off the bike path. I am worried about crossing the major road my house is on, and being hit by a truck going 60mph. The path to work is very very simple- besides that ONE unavoidable road crossing, which in itself is ten times as dangerous as the rest of the trip combined. Bike helmets are not made to protect for high speed crashes.

If you get hit at a high speed, it is likely that you severely injured or dead regardless of the type of helmet you wear. A collision with a truck at 60 mph? The type of helmet is unlikely to matter. You can look at injury and mortality rates for pedestrians since you are basically one when on a scooter due to the same vehicle-hits-human-body dynamics.

Results show that the average risk of severe injury for a pedestrian struck by a vehicle reaches 10% at an impact speed of 16 mph, 25% at 23 mph, 50% at 31 mph, 75% at 39 mph, and 90% at 46 mph. The average risk of death for a pedestrian reaches 10% at an impact speed of 23 mph, 25% at 32 mph, 50% at 42 mph, 75% at 50 mph, and 90% at 58 mph. Risks vary significantly by age. For example, the average risk of severe injury or death for a 70‐year old pedestrian struck by a car traveling at 25 mph is similar to the risk for a 30‐year‐old pedestrian struck at 35 mph.

Avoiding the dangerous intersection, finding a safe(r) place to cross even if it's out of the way (ie on a scooter a mile or two out of the way is more reasonable than on foot), or even getting off the scooter and being particularly careful will help you much more than changing your helmet.

It is still a very good idea to wear a helmet on scooters since, during other types of accidents, most injuries to scooter riders are head injuries and quite a few of the more severe injuries would have been mitigated by helmet use (at least based on what I've read in various places). Also don't use your scooter while intoxicated, try to minimize use after dark, and ride in bike lanes rather than on sidewalks and unpaved surfaces.

ETA: In general, the most common mechanism of accidents on e-scooters is falling off the bike not being hit by a car. Helmets are likely to help with falls. Other ways to protect against falls or decrease their likelihood are probably where time could be well spent. Hence the above recs re: wear a helmet, avoid intoxication, avoid use after dark, only ride on even surfaces, etc. A motorcycle helmet might be a better choice than a bike helmet if it will protect your head from injury better during falls. I guess my point is that you should probably be more worried about falling over the handle bars or falling off the path, etc than you should be about collisions with vehicles. And before worrying about how to survive a high speed crash with a better helmet (not likely to work), you should focus on avoiding the risk.

Mechanism of injury
 Fall 341 (85.9%)
 Collision 38 (9.6%)
 Hit by a vehicle 18 (4.5%)

The most common mechanism of injury was rider fall (79.1%), followed by rider collision (16.1%), while 4.8% were pedestrians hit by an e-scooter. Most of the patients were between 25 and 40 years of age (55.5%), and the mechanism of injury was rider fall in 81.1% of them.

Also, none of this should be taken as a reason to avoid using scooters. It seems like a good idea in your case.

[Seppia]

I bought an electric scooter for similar reasons
1/ Short commute (3miles) but due to south Florida weather and my dress code can’t walk it outside of winter months
2/ I can do 100% of the commute on bike paths

I wear no helmet as I go veeeeeeery slow (<15mph) and never ride on the same road with cars and trucks

I picked the Unagi one on a Black Friday deal for $470 or so.

Reasons why:
1/ it’s light so I can carry it. I’m not leaving it on the street but bringing it up my place at night -3rd floor no elevator- and up into my office.
2/ it’s slow. I wanted something that prevented me from even thinking about sharing the road with cars - I ride on bike paths or on sidewalks. Again veeeeeeery slow. The main objective is “don’t die”
3/ it’s good quality. I have been using it for about 5 months (from the hottest March days to regularly since May) and the battery lasts the same.
4/ being very small, no one looks at me strange when I bring it into my office and plug it in for charging. I have ridden it around 200 miles so far and charged it at home a grand total of zero times. The charger sits in the office as the battery has enough juice for a two way trip.
I don’t really do this for the savings but rather because my apartment is small and I like the idea of storing it in a closet (can’t charge it there)

[Sclass]

Sounds fun. I like how you can fold the scooter up and take it on the bus.

I had a colleague back in 2008 with an electric scooter. He rode it between the office and the train station which was across some really big corporate parking lots and on a bike trail. He’d ride home in the dark. One day he came in all beat up. Apparently he was zooming across a new parking lot and he hit a parking bumper. He went flying before tumbling. Looked like he stepped off a motorcycle. No helmet. Maybe at 20mph or so. Buy some good lights if you’re going to ride in the dark.

Be careful. A head injury can change the course of your life.

[Scott 2]

+1 on the helmet. MIPS. Spend $100 and they're comfortable enough. I'd favor a bike helmet for the scooter, because I know I would always wear it.

A former cyclist with a head injury lived in my first apartment building. He went from a thriving career to harassing tenants and stealing newspapers from the lobby. Sobering to say the least.

[guitarplayer]

I have this Bern, but green. When I go to meet people I don't know, I tell them 'look for a cyclist with the helmet like a watermelon' (with allowance for being colour blind it's close enough, cheers up the atmosphere also).

I would like to extend the discussion to regular scooters as well please if not a problem (maybe there will be no interest in discussing this branch and it will drop dead).

I like the idea as the tool is potentially much simpler than a(n electric) bicycle - less parts, and if one goes for just a scooter dropping the 'electric' then it costs peanuts and is super light and portable, provides some movement but takes one places way quicker. And it is outside the frame of mind of most people, because considered a 'toy' for most part (while an electric scooter I would presume is already consider a vehicle - heavier, pricier, and branded accordingly).

For people like DW and I, this can be a nice variant for commuting. We took the ERE advice and commute around town running, up to perhaps 6 miles round trip and with a max total load of around 10lb. The second mode is bicycle for much longer commutes and a load of up to around 50lb probably. For sweat free commute, walking or slower cycling with less load. A regular scooter could probably be found for free and would be somewhere in between these four modes of commuting.

[Jean]

before buying one, you have to listen to "we butter the bread with butter - 20km/h"

[Natris]

I recently bought a Hiboy s2 lite scooter, and a thing that allows me to attach it to my manual wheelchair. It's fills that middle-range gap in my transportation needs where I need to get somewhere fairly fast, when walking (using "walk" loosely here, really I'm pushing my wheelchair) won't do, but a car seems like overkill. For most folks a bike fills this hole. A couple things I noticed with scooter life (that probably apply to those using them in a more typical able-bodied way):

* The ones on the cheaper end (like this one) don't do great on steep hills. But it's okay because you can still give it an assist, but it does reduce the battery life
* The limited range sucks a little more than I anticipated. And I'm not sure "buy a scooter with more range" is really the fix. Like when I walk around, range is simply a factor of time. I can walk as far as I have care to spend doing it. But with an escooter, if the battery runs down, it's a slog to use. So you really are limited by range and maybe charging time. You might be able to mitigate this to some degree by getting multiple, interchangeable batteries or getting something with "quick charge" capability.
* There's not much of an exercise benefit to an escooter, beyond helping it on steep hills a bit
* The battery is gonna die one day and need to be replaced. That kinda sucks ecologically
* The escooter is fairly useless in the rain or snow. Again, more expensive ones are probably better in this regard, but you're paying more.
With all that, if I was able bodied I think a bike plus a change of clothes would be pretty darn appealing next to the downsides of an escooter.

For me personally, the escooter is a pretty good option since I can attach it to my wheelchair. I'm keeping my eyes open for used hand cycle attachments for wheelchairs (the new ones are more than I want to pay), and even considering making my own, but it's a bit beyond my current skill level.

[guitarplayer]

I recently bought a Hiboy s2 lite scooter, and a thing that allows me to attach it to my manual wheelchair.
[...]
* The escooter is fairly useless in the rain or snow. Again, more expensive ones are probably better in this regard, but you're paying more.

Just imagined this and it looks really innovative, well done! (thought it might be the most common thing in your demographic and I am just not aware it's a thing). Why would you say an escooter is useless in the rain, is it from the point of view of the battery?

[Natris]

@guitarplayer Yeah, it's neat and pretty unique (though I've since learned that a number of people have diy'd their own rigs for this. Kinda wish I'd found them first!

Oh, an escooter generally isn't necessarily useless, it's just the cheapo one I bought isn't rated for use in the rain, and apparently it's dangerous (easier to tip over, etc.). But there are definitely escooters that are good in the rain. Even this one might be fine but the manufacture says something like "it'll be okay for a little while, but you should try to get out of the rain.

[Walwen]

I ordered the NIU KQi2 Pro, along with the helmet NIU sells, which has LED lights for visibility. I'll update everyone when it arrives!

[SouthernAlchemy]

that's a nice looking ride! Looking forward to update on it. This thread has me thinking...

[Walwen]

Here's an update, I've had it for a while now.

I am envious of the videos I watched where people just hop up on there and learn to ride in twenty minutes because that has not been my situation. I have some medical issues involving vertigo, and can't ride a bike or drive either and sometimes keel over just from turning around too fast, so I'm predicting I'm in the bottom 1% in terms of learning speed here.

I have been going out there for an hour or two most days and I still am not able to take it for my commute. I can go a cool ten mph around a single block and fall off only four or five times though LOL. I'm getting there and it's all me and not the scooter though. The helmet was a good choice and I may eventually get one with a face shield as I've already had a few close calls and road burns doing the ol' tuck and roll across the asphalt. I don't know how several scooter youtubers said they've never fallen, unless they're not counting since they learned or something: I've fallen a couple hundred times already and the longest distance I can go is about the length of three houses, and I can't make turns at all yet. Again this is probably because I have neurological issues.

Scooter is pretty light though! It's not an issue to pick up, about the same as my dog and less squirmy. The ride is smooth and it charges fast and has an overall small footprint. I have to resist the urge to say VROOM VROOM when I'm on it, it sounds very high-tech. I don't use the bullshit app and it hasn't been an issue.

Hopefully I'll be able to actually ride it in town within a couple months, and I'll try to give another update.