WEBVTT - The Bloody Consequences of the Scooter Revolution 0:00:07.640 --> 0:00:11.560 Santa Monica is your typical California beach town. It's seaside 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:14.600 boardwalks are lined with palm trees, fringed by milky sand, 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:17.439 always packed with people. If you wander along the beach path, 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:20.240 you end up at the world famous pier, which has 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:23.880 started shows like Baywatch and movies like Forrest Gump. The 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:28.480 pier is full of food stands, fishermen, tourists and street performers, 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:32.199 guys like Davey Peterson. I'm a street performer on the 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:36.280 Santa Monica Pier in California. I sing and dance. I 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:44.480 do hip hop, pop rock and Latin musy. Baby, how 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:54.920 was I? That's so? Davey's got this dramatic act. He's 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:57.880 out there shirtless and oiled up and a gladiator style 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:01.800 skirt and a mask of zoro hat, dancing, kicking and 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:04.720 singing like he's in a karaoke bar. He's been dancing 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:06.399 on the pier for years now and says a new 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:10.160 crowd has encroached on his turf lately, people writing electric scooters. 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:14.360 I was performing for a group of people, maybe several dozen, 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:19.440 when I was hit from behind by a bird scooter. 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:23.080 Santa Monica became ground zero for the electric scooter sharing 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:26.440 boom last September when a startup called Bird began spreading 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:29.800 the vehicles all around town. And as I was lying 0:01:29.880 --> 0:01:33.120 there on the deck, I looked up and I saw 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:39.160 a young man with a scruffy beard looking down at 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:43.000 me from a Bird scooter. And he looked down at 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:47.760 me and he said, what the f dude, and then 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:49.720 he took off. So it was a hit and run. 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:53.440 It was only the next morning the davy realized how 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:56.600 badly he'd been hurt. So I went to the emergency 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:59.520 room at u C l A, where I found out 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:03.920 that had a broken arm and that my right bicep 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:07.480 had actually been severed from my lower arm. I had 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:12.520 to have my biceps surgically reattached to my lower arm, 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:15.000 and that's a major surgery that takes at least a 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:28.320 year and a half to two years to completely recover from. Hi. 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:31.720 I'm Joshua brusting in for Bradstone and Olivia Cavill, and 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:35.200 this week on Decrypted, we're exploring the unintended consequences of 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:40.480 a sudden rise of scooterter sharing services scoota. Startups like Bird, Lime, Scutin, 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:43.919 Spin have arrived in over a hundred cities around the world. 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:47.040 While some people think scooters could usher in a whole 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:50.680 new era of urban transport, others view them as a danger. 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:55.919 Patients with scuota related injuries have been streaming into emergency departments, 0:02:56.280 --> 0:03:00.760 with everything from gravel rash to concussions. These injuries are 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:04.200 obviously unintended, and although some might argue they were foreseeable 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:07.640 with scooters, the question now becomes are these things as 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:10.440 safe they should be and who bears responsibility for the 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:25.160 accents that do happen stay with us. Starting late last year, 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:29.000 scooters appeared virtually overnight in dozens of cities around the US. 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:31.760 Many people love jumping on a scooter and cruising to 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:34.800 their next destination, or just scruising around for as little 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:37.000 as a couple of bucks. Then they could leave the 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:39.200 scooter wherever they liked, ready for the next rider to 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:41.720 pick up. Here was a service that was an immediate 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:44.880 hit with consumers. It was also one that should have 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:47.720 appealed to city officials in search of ways to reduce 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:50.840 car use, or at least that's what the invistas who 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:54.840 poured hundreds of millions of dollars into them saw the 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:58.480 first two scooter sharing companies, Bird and Lime, said they 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:01.880 were shocked by the unexpected and instantaneous public enthusiasm for 0:04:01.920 --> 0:04:05.160 their product. They were also taken aback by how polarizing 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:09.440 they became. Scooter companies have drawn criticism as law breakers 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:12.800 because they often failed to run their plans by city officials. 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:15.600 People who didn't use the scooters saw them as an 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:20.240 eyesore in a nuisance, and within months, sensational stories about 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:23.800 grizzly scooter injuries were hitting the headlines. Safety issues were 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:26.919 driving a major backlash from city governments in Santa Monica 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:30.359 and elsewhere. Officials rushed to set up permit programs and 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:34.080 begin quizzing applicants about their plans for public safety. Scooter 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:37.520 companies have always said they're doing their best. They've suggested 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:40.320 people wear helmets and even given away helmets for free, 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:43.760 but their biggest message on safety is that scooters aren't 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:47.840 actually the problem carsa and reshaping the streets to make 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:50.880 them safer as a job for the city governments themselves. 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:57.039 Hundreds of scooter injuries have been reported in the United States. 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:00.080 Getting a total headcount is nearly impossible, though, because no 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:04.240 one's compiling firm statistics. I've heard stories about elderly pedestrians 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:08.760 being knocked unconscious on footpaths, teenagers with severe facial burns, 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:13.000 writers with no helmet flying head first over handlebars, and 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:16.480 in some cases, even death. This morning, we are waiting 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:18.840 to learn the identity of a twenty one year old 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:21.000 killed in a crash in Cleveland over the weekend. Yeah, 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:24.520 she was hit downtown writing an electric scooter. A man 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:27.800 riding an electric scooter is dead after being hit by 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:31.520 an Suvly is a sad first for Dallas. A writer 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:34.960 of the new electric scooters died after falling. It happened 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:37.200 over the weekend. I spoke to a physician in Atlanta 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:40.120 who recently treated a patient with a traumatic brain injury 0:05:40.360 --> 0:05:43.520 who was unconscious for days after an accident. Another doctor 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:45.719 said that more than a hundred patients have wound up 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:49.120 in one emergency department in Los Angeles from scooter related injuries, 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:52.880 with some learning and intensive care for weeks. Wally Gurabi, 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:55.640 an emergency room doctor at one of u c l 0:05:55.720 --> 0:05:58.680 A's medical centers in Santa Monica, told me the most 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:02.320 common scooter injuries are usually to the face. Just think 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:06.520 about you know your face, landing on the asphalt, danting 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:10.120 your face and tattooing your face with all sorts of uh, 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:15.719 you know, lacerations that will take a plastic surgeon to 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:18.040 work for hours and try to clean your face and 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:20.640 get the dirt off your face so you don't tattoo 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:23.520 for the rest of your life, he said. He says 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.520 a lot of orthopedic injuries that happen when people stretch 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:29.279 out their arms while trying to break their fall. You 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:33.719 start by breaking your wrist as one, then transmit the 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:37.360 force to the elbow and then transmitting all the way 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:40.839 to the shoulder along the ribs, breaking the ribs, the 0:06:40.960 --> 0:06:47.320 ribs sponsoring your lung. After we started looking into scooter injuries, 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:49.360 people came out of the woodwork willing to share their 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:53.200 personal stories. We heard from Daria Kent in California, Victor 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:56.240 San Andreas and New York and pay to Flex and 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:58.800 Los Angeles. I took the scooter out of the car 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:02.080 and I was scooling down the hill going home and 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:06.360 the breaks launch on their own. As about that time, 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:10.280 my scooter power kicked in, took off at full speed 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:12.120 and I fell off the scooter and he had a 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:13.960 big smile on his face just went to kind of 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:17.680 a look of terror, and then he just smashed right 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:20.680 into the front of my bike. I don't remember anything 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:26.080 up to the point where I was flying in the air. Unfortunately, 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:31.360 my helmet didn't protect my chin and it was severely bruised, swollen, numb, 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:35.320 and purple for several weeks. I think the only thing 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:39.640 keeping my teeth from shattering where my invisiligned braces. I 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:43.360 gotta had a concussion because I hit my face and 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:48.600 my right to nail came off. And I am now 0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:52.240 in six weeks of painful physical therapy so I'll be 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:55.280 able to bend my leg as I'm learning to be 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:58.560 able to walk again, and my left hand I have 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:04.400 berminent damage my small finger. Um. I cannot make a 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:09.280 fifth anymore. He landed on his forehead, and he was 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:14.400 laying on the pavement, um with his forehead bleeding and 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:20.360 and initially in a really unresponsive state, his eyes rolling 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:24.600 around a bed and um and just not really moving 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:29.440 his body, um um, just looking to be in a 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:34.640 state of shock. It's pretty gruesome, but it's important to 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:38.320 put these anecdotes into perspective. People have taken well over 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:41.160 twenty million rides on Lime and Bird in less than 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:46.440 a year. For context, in more than one thousand cyclists 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:48.840 were killed in the United States, and there were almost 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:52.200 four hundred and seventy thousand cycling related injuries, according to 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:56.360 the Centers for Diseased Control and Prevention. Interestingly, doctors told 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:58.840 me that you're actually more prone to accidents riding a 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:01.480 scooter than a bike. When you're peddling on a bike, 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:04.840 your entire body is engaged, you're paying more attention to 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:07.720 your speed and other hazards on the road. But on 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:11.160 a scooter you kind of lulled into a sense of complacency, 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:15.480 just relaxing, cruising along, pushing a button to accelerate. Then 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:17.880 when you do hit something or knocked off the scooter, 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:23.200 you fall unprepared, unengaged, and more often than not, unprotected 0:09:23.600 --> 0:09:26.040 because most people don't use helmets. When I've been on 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:28.840 a scooter, I didn't have one around. But actually not 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:31.680 wearing a helmet is by far the biggest safety issue, 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:34.280 according to pretty much all the doctors I spoke to. 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:37.360 You know, we can fix broken bones in the arm 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:41.600 and shoulder, and we can stitch you clean you up. Wow. 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:45.480 You know if you beat in your head, there's always 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:48.880 some damage that you're not going to be able to 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:53.400 that that will be ferment. All scooter writers in California 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:55.760 have been required to wear a helmet by law, but 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:59.320 Bird recently convinced the state to change the rules. Governor 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:02.360 Jerry Brown signed the bill last month that allows adults 0:10:02.360 --> 0:10:05.440 to cruise California streets on scooters without a helmet, just 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:16.120 like the cannon bikes. It takes effect on January one. Okay, 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:18.480 so scooters aren't as safe as they should be. I 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:21.200 think that's actually something that pretty much everyone agrees on. 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:23.679 The scooter companies say that a big part of the 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:26.520 answer is for cities to create protected lanes and do 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:29.600 other things to slow cars down. Bird didn't make anyone 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:32.600 available for an interview, but they did send a statement 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:36.240 in which a company spokesperson said, as Bird partners with cities, 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:38.920 we are putting safety front and center of what we do. 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:42.760 But Taylor Bennett, director of public Affairs at Lime, so 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:46.600 the responsibility laid both with private companies and city officials, 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:48.559 and so there's an onus on us, and there's a 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:51.680 notice on cities to really make sure that we're putting 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:55.760 safety first, and we are looking at our roadways in 0:10:55.760 --> 0:10:59.720 a way that considers these new mobility options. Urbanists have 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:03.840 been talking about this for decades. American cities are fundamentally 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:06.800 built for cars, so for now, scooter writers in many 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:09.760 cases have to choose between sharing the road with cars, 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:13.600 which is dangerous, or sharing the sidewalk with pedestrians, which 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:16.800 is both dangerous and illegal. The scooter companies have been 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:20.520 careful to limit their own legal responsibility. Both Bird and 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:24.160 Lime have clauses and their user agreements steering riders into 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:29.520 binding arbitration. They also have clauses prohibiting class actions, but 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:32.560 the strength of those agreements is already being challenged by 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:36.160 personal injury lawyers like Katherine Leara, who was based in 0:11:36.200 --> 0:11:40.120 Santa Monica. When I saw these scooters out on the 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:43.559 street in front of our house, I immediately thought, Wow, 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:46.640 these are dangerous and someone's going to be injured. Soon 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:49.000 after that, Catherine put a page up on her website 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:51.439 calling for scooter victims to get in touch, and she 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:54.920 said the response was swift. The phone started ringing and 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:58.240 they haven't stopped since then. Catherine says she's now receiving 0:11:58.240 --> 0:12:00.760 a call a day from a fresh scoot of a dim. 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:03.720 She blames the companies, which she says is putting profit 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:08.280 over public safety. Earlier this month, Catherine filed a lawsuit 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:10.920 against burden Lyme on behalf of nine people who have 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:13.880 been injured by scooters, one of them as Our Street 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:17.600 performer Davy Peterson. Catherine said she plans to file at 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:20.520 least a dozen more personal injury claims and coming months. 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:24.400 I fully placed the blame on the scooter companies for 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:28.440 the injuries that are happening. They dumped these scooters on 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:33.240 the cities without first consulting with the cities and making 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:37.760 sure the proper rules and regulations were in place um 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:40.920 and so the cities were blindsided by these and had 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:45.640 to scramble to educate the public about the rules that 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:49.520 apply and come up with new rules that apply. And so, 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:53.559 had they worked with the cities before they dropped these scooters, 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:56.800 I think a lot of these injuries would have been avoided. 0:12:57.200 --> 0:12:59.800 Cities are catching up to the scooter craze by launching 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:03.680 silet programs. In August, Santa Monica launched a pilot that 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:08.760 allows two thousand scooters from four companies, Bird, Lime, Lift 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:12.960 and Jump. Portland Oregon also has a pilot program underway, 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:15.240 and so does l A. To name just a few, 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:19.080 scooter companies say they're writers will be safer as more 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:21.600 scooters hit the streets and drivers get used to seeing 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:25.000 them in the road. They also say education campaigns and 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:29.240 better scooters will also improve safety. Taylor from Lime told 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:32.040 me the company has just released its third generation scooter, 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:35.600 trying to make them safer with every upgrade. Lime's latest 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:39.040 model comes with bigger tires which are more durable to potholes, 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:41.960 breaks on the back wheels not just the front, a 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:46.480 sturdier frame, and jewel suspension. And Taylor also said they 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:50.120 always advise riders to wear helmets. Our stances, you should 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:53.160 always be wearing helmets. We just ordered a quarter million 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:56.080 helmets and going to give those out at the local level, 0:13:56.400 --> 0:14:00.280 making sure folks have access to free helmets. Taylor told 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:02.800 me that he knows helmets don't look cool and that 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:05.280 they're kind of awkward to carry, so the company is 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:09.920 investigating collapsible helmets as a future option. The scooter companies 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:13.000 are also calling on local officials to make city infrastructure 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:16.319 more scooter friendly. They want protected bike lanes and designated 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:19.880 parking to protect both riders and pedestrians. I asked Taylor 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:22.320 whether the company knew putting these scooters on the streets 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:26.280 would inevitably result in some accidents. Yeah. I think when 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:28.640 you roll out a new technology, there's going to be 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:32.520 um some positives and some and some things that require 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:35.120 some fixing and tweaking. And you know, this is brand new, 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:38.400 like as quickly as it unfolded. It's it's our job 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:40.400 to help address those and and that's you know, with 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:42.520 our new scooter and all of the safety products, and 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:49.440 that will continue to evolve and be enhanced. So I 0:14:49.560 --> 0:14:52.320 used to ride a push scooter to school when I 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:55.040 was a little kid, but I have never been on 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:57.520 an electric scooter. I know that you recently went to 0:14:57.560 --> 0:14:59.920 San Francisco. Yeah. I think one of the things that 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.720 you'll immediately notice from being on one is that that 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:04.760 memory of being a kid and being on a scooter, 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:06.880 and it's a good thing or a bad thing. I mean, 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:09.440 I'm an adult man and I'm riding on a scooter. 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:11.520 It felt a little bit silly, but it's kind of fun. 0:15:12.480 --> 0:15:16.360 Put me in like the moment, were you on the sidewalk, 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:19.200 were you on the road, how are you riding it? Yeah, 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:20.960 so when I was there, I had read up on 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:22.520 scooters with a a little bit and knew that you were 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:24.760 not supposed to be on the sidewalk. So I grabbed 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:27.120 the scooter. I went straight into the street and I 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:29.200 took off. There was a bike lane on the street 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:31.280 I was in, so that was fine. It starts off 0:15:31.320 --> 0:15:33.320 really quick. I was a little bit surprised by that. 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:35.760 And then it took me like a half a block 0:15:35.840 --> 0:15:37.200 or a block, and then I felt like I was 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:40.360 cruising around pretty comfortably. Then I cut onto a street 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:42.800 that didn't have a bike line and it was pretty narrow, 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:45.720 and then I got nervous. The cars seemed very close 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:48.000 and you really feel exposed. Yeah. One of the things 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:50.120 I'd be afraid of it was someone opening up a 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:54.440 car door and just knocking me out. Yeah. Absolutely. Um 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:58.040 And for me, like, I had a backpack on, so 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:00.960 that was fine. But I think people who are carrying 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:03.840 things might have trouble. Yeah. I feel like i'd struggle 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:06.320 because I usually carry a handbag to work, and I 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:08.040 was thinking if I was going to ride one on 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:11.160 that kind of mile distance that I walk from the 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:14.080 subway stop to the office, I don't know where i'd 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:16.600 put my bag. Yeah, my my three year and a 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:19.360 half year old daughter actually commutes to school on a scooter. 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:22.520 It's not an electric scooter, but and she carries a bunny, obviously, 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:26.040 and so we tie the bunny's arms around the handlebars, 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:27.880 and that works for her. Maybe that would work for 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:31.240 your bags. It's so cute. So we have scooters in 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:34.520 over a hundred cities around the world, and for most 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:37.080 of the people I talked to, they believe that scooters 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:38.720 are here to stay and that they're going to be 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:41.560 a permanent fixture in our cities. Do you do you 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:45.640 actually think that they're going to change the way we move? Yeah, 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:49.200 you know, I do think that there is some something 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:52.240 to this argument. In San Francisco, where I wrote on them, 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:56.200 there's this this distance about half a mile too, maybe 0:16:56.200 --> 0:16:59.280 two miles. It's too long to walk, you don't want 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:01.120 to get in a car, Trains not going to take 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:03.560 you there, And having these scooters all over the place, 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:05.560 at least downtown, you could just jump on one and 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:09.040 ride there in five minutes or whatever. It felt good 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:11.600 like this was actually a practical way to get around 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:14.720 in a dense city center. So let me ask you, 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:16.840 likes someone who hasn't been on a scooter and has 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:19.679 just spent a while kind of really delving into how 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:22.920 dangerous these things are, do you think that the fear 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:25.120 of injury might keep you off of them. I think 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:27.520 it was definitely a bad idea for me to talk 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:31.600 to doctors about traumatic brain injuries where patients were unconscious 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:34.760 for days before I even jumped on board a scooter. 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:36.879 I like the idea of them. I think that they 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:40.160 would be really fun to ride, but I'm also an 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:44.280 overly cautious person, so I feel like, after all these interviews, 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:47.760 I'm definitely not going to get on board. So one 0:17:47.840 --> 0:17:53.960 less rider, one least writer, for sure. So let's get 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:57.800 back to another scooter skeptic. David Peterson, the street performer 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:00.560 who got hit on the Santa Monica Pier. He had 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:03.960 a few ideas for measures his city should consider, and 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:07.840 I think that the scooters should be required to have 0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:10.280 license plates. When I was lying there on the deck 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:12.720 looking up at the person who hit me, there was 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:15.720 no way to identify him once they took off. The 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:18.080 scooters should also have to make a little noise, like 0:18:18.119 --> 0:18:20.200 a hum or something, so you can hear them coming. 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:23.400 Davy's right that pedestrians will have to learn to look 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:26.879 out for scooters as they zip by, but ultimately the 0:18:26.920 --> 0:18:29.080 decision to jump on board comes down to the writer. 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:32.239 If people don't feel safe on scooters, that could be 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:35.240 a big problem for the companies, no matter who is 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:39.160 technically to blame. Would I get on any scooter again, 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:43.320 or even suggest somebody else did, No way, not on 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:54.400 a bet. I think I'll stick to skydiving. And that's 0:18:54.400 --> 0:18:57.119 it for this week's scripted Thanks for listening. Have you 0:18:57.160 --> 0:18:59.800 been in a scooter accident? We want to hear your story. 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:03.400 You can email us at decrypted at Bloomberg dot net 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:07.040 or I'm on Twitter at lib Carbo and I'm at 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:09.920 Joshua Breustin. If you're a fan of the show, please 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:11.880 take a moment to rate and review us. It helps 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:15.359 new listeners find the show. This episode was produced by 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:19.960 Peter Gadkari and Magnus Hendrickson. Our story editor was Anne Vandermy. 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:24.560 Thanks also to Brad Stone, Aki Ito, Emily Busso, and 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:29.320 Liz Smith. Francisco Levi is head of Bloomberg Podcasts. We'll 0:19:29.359 --> 0:19:32.960 see you next week.