It is with equal parts joy and dismay that I welcome electric scooters to my neighborhood.
Joy because scooters could replace cars for short distance errands.
Dismay because neighborhoods must now deal with a new set of potential scooter-related problems.
A few days ago, with a canvas bag of groceries slung over my shoulder, I was walking along the sidewalk heading home when I saw two people on scooters on the sidewalk coming towards me.
My first thought was wow, that looks like fun…
Then I noticed the two scooters approaching at a rather face pace.
I was suddenly lost in a fantasy of me on a scooter with a long scarf draped around my neck with its ends swinging in the breeze as I moved along to disco music playing in my earphones.
I giggled at the wildness of my imagination…
Then I saw the two scooters getting closer and closer… and they didn’t seem to be slowing down or making any attempt to avoid a head-on collision with me.
They saw me. I saw them.
Was this a scooter game of chicken?
Closer… closer… closer they came…
My fear took over. They were not going to get out of my way!
I jumped off the sidewalk in the nick of time, nearly falling to the ground and losing my groceries. I could have broken the eggs or punctured the milk carton I was carrying! And did they care? No!
The two scooters continued on their way as if I wasn’t there.
WTF?
Are scooters the new threat to sidewalk walking?
If so, I foresee lots of scooter-related pedestrian collisions with some escalating into dangerous scooter-rage.
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