Being taken for a ride

A number of arguments have been made in the media in favour of retaining rental e-scooters on our pavements and our roads. 

We read about these scooters being equipped with educational and speed limit features, with tandem riding prevention measures, even about a patrol that “constantly reallocates misplaced scooters”.  We were told that scooters are safe, are only “occasionally driven haphazardly” and even help to reduce congestion on the roads.

Excuse me. But are the residents of St Julian’s and Sliema being taken for a ride?

Just last week a rental e-scooter was abandoned on our private driveway. Yet again, two rental scooters were blocking the exit of a neighbour’s garage. Yet again I had to step on to the road because an unused e-scooter was taking up the whole width of the narrow pavement. 

Yet again, I just missed hitting a rental e-scooter belting down our hill wrong way as I gingerly manoeuvred my car out of its parking spot. Yet again, a happy couple on a single scooter zigzagged through the many walkers and joggers on the promenade. And this was the first week of December, not the hectic summer months when visitors and their scooter misdemeanours increase exponentially.

So where are the gadgets and apps that are supposed to curb speeding and tandem riding? Where are the patrols that are supposed to quickly move badly parked scooters? The fact that over 10,000 fines were issued in the first eight months of this year for e-scooter indiscretions is a further testament to the adverse realities we keep experiencing daily. To add insult to injury, instead of apologising for their users’ bad manners, operators emphasise that they are contesting these fines since the law is vague on what constitutes irregular parking.

Even the names on these scooters, either intentionally or inadvertently, seem to encourage their users to accelerate, speed, even fly to their destination. Maybe ‘slow’ or ‘crawl’ or ‘be cautious’ or ‘be polite’ might be more appropriate labels to stick on their frames. The educational features we are told they have, do not seem effective at all.

We have also been told that e-scooters are one of the safest modes of transport, especially since no fatalities have been recorded locally. Must a tragedy first occur before preventive action is taken seriously?  

What about the near misses that most of us keep describing? If the reported incidence of accidents associated with e-scooters is truly low in Malta, one must congratulate the vigilance of pedestrians and drivers rather than the nonchalance attitude of many riders.

We were even told that shared e-scooters decrease the number of cars on the road. Such a sweeping statement should again be taken with a pinch of salt. While walking on the promenade and being mindful of not being hit by one of many whizzing scooters, it is easy to observe that our streets are already saturated with cars, most bearing Y-number plates. 

It is only now, with a ban looming, that operators of rental e-scooters seem keen to explain how they can control what remains another wild west scenario. Many people remain unsurprisingly unconvinced thanks to what they keep seeing with their own eyes. 

It is too late. The havoc causing rental e-scooters bolted ages ago. Even the long-promised parking bays will not contain them.

Anthony Fiorini – St Julian’s