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How green are dockless e-scooters?:
Dockless e-scooter companies have for roughly two years touted their devices as not only convenient but also a win for the environment.
But a growing body of research suggests that the scooter craze may not be as green as advertised.
To change that, experts say, companies such as Lime, Bird and Wheels must manufacture more robust e-scooters while riders need to increasingly use those devices in lieu of driving. According to studies, many people are cruising around on e-scooters as an alternative to cleaner forms of transportation, such as biking, walking and taking the bus.
Still, experts say the fast-evolving industry has the potential to revolutionize urban travel and significantly reduce planet-warming emissions.
"It could be huge for sustainable travel," said Juan Matute, deputy director of UCLA's Institute of Transportation Studies.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday January 20 2020, @10:13PM
E-scooters have been showing up more often in NYC. It seems like an excellent travel option if their range and weight limit work for you (some can't get up certain hills if you weigh over a certain amount, apparently). E-bikes are great also, but it's harder to take an e-bike into an office building or on the subway/bus. Folding bikes (a la Dahon models) get you part of the way there, but those can also be cumbersome in the tight spaces common in urban cores. Provided the e-scooters can fold up they can become quite compact and can be carried anywhere and left under your cubicle desk.
As such, they and those solo-wheel devices make a useful option to use either by themselves or in combination with light rail or subways, etc if you have a longer commute.
And ever growing travel times are a plague for city dwellers. It really shouldn't take a New Yorker an hour to travel a dozen miles from an outer borough into Manhattan, but it does. Going cross-town there is famously nightmarish. If a person had an e-scooter and carrying bag for the book ends of the journey, then it would be a matter of 10 minutes. It all adds up if you have meetings all over town.
Washington DC delenda est.