Weekly Scooter Media Brief: September 21-27, 2018

Most of the electric scooter news Planetizen has collected over the past month has reflected an ongoing process of discovering, reacting, and beginning to regulate electric scooter rentals—a narrative repeated in cities all over the country as companies like Lime and Bird expand operations to new cities.

In recent weeks, however, the human cost of throwing a new mode into a public realm already engineered with massive risks to public health built into the transportation infrastructure has become evident. Whether reports of fatalities and injuries lead to stricter regulations and limits on operations (i.e., more car-oriented status quo) or a sea change in transportation infrastructure is the question of the day, week, month, year, and beyond.

National News

• Hospital ER reports 161 percent spike in visits involving electric scooters (The Washington Post, Sept. 24)
• Bird’s electric scooters are getting more rugged to handle heavy use (The Verge, Sept. 24)

National Commentary

• E-Scooter Deaths Show Urgent Need for Safer Streets (Streetsblog USA, Sept 24)

Local News

• Man Riding Scooter Dies After Being Hit By SUV In Dupont Circle (DCist, Sept. 21)
• Central Ohioans collect, charge electric scooters overnight as side job with flexible hours (The Columbus Dispatch [paywall], Sept. 25)
• Spin aims to be third scooter company to roll into Detroit (Crain's Detroit Business, Sept. 26)
• Another first for scooters in L.A.: a conviction for scooting under the influence (Los Angeles Times, Sept. 26)
• Traffic halted through Dupont Circle in vigil for man killed on scooter (WTOP, Sept. 27)

Local Commentary

• Are scooters a mobility solution? (Crain's Detroit Business, Sept. 23)
• Scooters aren’t to blame for crashes — car-centric streets are (Greater Greater Washington, Sept. 24)
• How to alleviate Denver’s growing conflict between bikes, scooters, pedestrians and cars (The Denver Post, Sept. 26)
• It’s been __ days since a driver killed someone walking, biking, or scooting in DC (Greater Greater Washington, Sept. 26)
• Kids love e-scooters—why aren’t they allowed to ride them? (Curbed LA, Sept. 27)