Lime scooters are trying to increase safety
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| On sidewalk - not good. |
Now that parking is almost impossible to get in the Center Grove, unless you are willing to drive around the block a half our or so, searching. You might want to start scooting around.
One of the issues with the scooters have been people riding them on sidewalks, rather than in the street, where they belong.
Lime, one of the many scooter companies has come up with a solution, possibly.
This week Lime launched a pilot program in San Jose, California where there are on-board sensors which detect through the terrain whether a rider is on the sidewalk or not. If they are - a notification will pop up on their phone asking them to stop.
Not sure how that will work, as I don't think looking at your phone while scooting around town is a good idea. It's akin to texting and driving, only worse. But hopefully riders will look at the report sent to them after they are done riding. You can see by the images above how it will look. There will be a map showing in red, where the person was on the sidewalk during their ride and then a warning message is also sent, as you can see on the image to the right.
Non Issue. The only question I have is is it illegal or not. If it is illegal there are three possible ways to address it. #1 Ticketing. With all the cops around the Grove just have them start ticketing on the spot or, if the company has the tech to see if the person is riding on the sidewalk, then they have the evidence and the name of the offender file. If they are aware of a crime and have the evidence on file are they not required to notify the police? #2 Again, if they have the tech to identify when the scooter is off road then they could install a control device to shut down the ride if it is detected going off road. #3 Have a provision in the TOS that states if the scooter is tracked going off road an additional fee of $50 will be added to the credit card they rented it on and the offender will be unable to rent again for a month. Anything less will be toothless. As it is the company should be held legally responsible for the actions of the drivers as they are supplying the means to to break the law with no oversight or regulation. A warning notification is useless in a city where 80% of the population speeds, a significant portion drives impaired or without insurance. I'm still waiting to see someone on I95 on one of these.
ReplyDeleteJust wait until scooters are forced onto the streets. Going to be multiple accidents every day.
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