The news and opinions are filling newspapers and websites faster than electric scooters are filling sidewalks.
The weekly round up of electric scooter news offers plenty to peruse and parse. In addition to the more traditional coverage of the regulatory machinations of municipalities in reaction to the newest mode on the block, this week we also see the emergence of a new form of "ambulance chasing" news coverage. As they say: "If it bleeds it leads." It will be interesting to see whether that approach to the evolving story of scooters includes victim blaming too.
Previous editions of the weekly scooter roundup are available here and here.
National Media
- Scooter use is rising in major cities. So are trips to the emergency room (The Washington Post, September 6)
- Quiz: Are these writers complaining about modern-day scooters, or 19th-century velocipedes? (The Washington Post, September 8)
- Uber Was Right (Slate, September 9)
Local News
- Dallas Man Killed In Accident [sic] On Electric Scooter (CBS DFGW, September 3)
- With city onboard, Lime deploys e-scooters in Baltimore (Technical.ly, September 4)
- Hit-and-run crash leaves Silver Lake scooter riders badly injured (The Eastsider, September 5)
- Electric scooters could soon be back in Miami — this time for good (Miami Herald, September 5)
- Norfolk impounding electric scooters as fast as they're put on the streets (The Virginian-Pilot, September 6)
- Lime electric scooters to arrive Tuesday, joining Bird on the streets of KC (The Kansas City Star, September 10)
- Columbus riders beware: Scooters don’t come with insurance policy (Columbus Dispatch, September 11)
Weekly Electric Scooter Media Brief: Aug. 29 – Sept. 4
The second installment "Weekly Electric Scooter Media Brief" presents a veritable cornucopia of breaking news, opinions, and insights into the wild west of electric scooter regulation.
Weekly Electric Scooter Media Brief
The first installment of an easy-to-gather collection of media coverage on electric scooters, the companies who rent them, the cities who regulate them (or not), and the public who loves (or hates) them.
Scooter Media Brief: Safety, Security, and Business Models Raise Concerns
Recent news has revealed some cracks in the pavement below the speedy wheels of electric scooter share.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
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Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax survives legal challenge
A panel of judges found that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate injury as a result of New York City's implementation of the tax.
Eastern Nebraska is running out of electricity
Data centers and electrification are straining eastern Nebraska’s grid, throttling economic development.
Seattle passes record-breaking transit services expansion
Proposition 1 will double the city’s transit tax to add 95,000 more bus trips and preserve 180,000 bus trips annually.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority