Scooter Media Brief for October 2018

Some people return from vacation daunted by the task of catching up on email. In 2018, the challenge is catching up on scooter news.

Of course, I am exaggerating a little, at the risk of detracting from the importance of the evolution of urban mobility and the political backlash—some warranted and some uncritically supportive of the car-centric status quo—surrounding electric scooters.

An emerging legal backlash, as reported by Peter Holley, compelled another appearance of the Planetizen Scooter Media Brief. More than one transit observer took to the Internet to describe this lawsuit and the regulatory limits being placed on scooters around the country as existential threats to the business model of shared dockless electric scooters.

Below follows the rest of what I've noticed this month, even with some vacation mixed in there. Please add more in the comments if you spotted any breaking news or hot takes that I missed.

National News

• Class-action lawsuit accuses e-scooter companies of ‘gross negligence’ (The Washington Post, Oct, 20)
• Scooter companies may have found a loophole in cities' limitations (CNN Business, Oct. 15)

National Commentary

• The Lime-S Generation 3 scooter makes headway down the wrong road (AndroidPit, Oct. 22)
• New Tech, Old Questions: An Analysis of the Sharing Economy by Transit and Planning Expert Christof Spieler (OffCite, Oct. 17)
• Tiny Vehicles and the New Safety in Numbers (Streetsblog USA, Oct. 9)
• The Man Behind the Scooter Revolution (CityLab, Sept. 26)

Local News

• Lime is building its first scooter “lifestyle brand store” in LA (TechCrunch, Oct. 22)
• Lime launches its electric scooters in Memphis without a permit; city threatens to remove them (Memphis Business Journal, Oct. 19)
• 'There's no respect,' TriMet disability advocates weigh in on e-scooters (The Oregonian, Oct. 16)
• Is New York City ready for the e-scooter revolution? (Curbed New York, Oct. 15)
• Here’s how to park your scooter in SF (Curbed San Francisco, Oct. 15)
• SF judge denies Lime’s request to block electric scooter deployment (TechCrunch, Oct. 12)
• E-scooters to return to SF streets on Oct. 15, but only in a handful of neighborhoods (San Francisco Examiner, Oct. 10)
• False alarm: e-scooters won’t hit Philly until 2019 (PlanPhilly, Oct. 2)
• New Yorkers jumping on e-scooters in growing numbers — city officials consider legalizing them (New York Daily News, Oct. 1)

Local Commentary

• Why New York City Should Welcome Electric Scooters on Its Streets (New York, Oct. 22)
• Electric scooters are good for the environment (Environment Texas, Oct. 12)
• Are electric scooters worth the headache? (The Denver Post, Oct. 2)
• Readers respond: E-scooters steal sidewalk rights from children, elderly and disabled (The Oregonian, Oct. 1)