Results 1 to 13 of 13
  1. #1
    Thailand Expat Backspin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2019
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    11,269

    The E-scooter menace

    I don't necessarily agree with this but it was just good to see someone slap these greeny e-scooter twerps across the face.

    PETER HITCHENS: E-scooter menace leaving chaos and death in its wake

    By Peter Hitchens for The Mail on Sunday

    Nobody else seems to be bothered, so here goes. Why have we allowed horrible, stupid electric scooters to infest our streets?


    Will anyone put a stop to it before it is irreversible? In this idiotic decision all kinds of other follies are bound up.
    The disappearance of proper police from our lives is one. By proper police I mean the sort who enforce the law.
    Near where I work we still have quite a few people who claim to be police, swaggering about with sub-machine guns and wearing baseball caps. But it is beneath them to enforce the ‘petty’ laws against people riding motorised machines at high speed along the pavement.


    Elsewhere the police seem to have forgotten how to walk and can only be observed in cars or helicopters, which help them to fail to notice almost everything that is going on. So I suppose it is a bit much to expect them to pay any attention to the lawless invasion of pavements, paths and parks by these bone-breaking nuisances.
    Another thing driving the spread of electric scooters (apart from brilliant public relations and product placement in TV dramas) is green dogma. This claims that because they are ‘less polluting than cars’, they are a good thing.


    This is such obvious bilge that only a fanatic could believe it, but the schools and universities teach green fanaticism these days – and it is one of the few things they seem to be able to get across successfully.


    Just think about it. E-scooters have heavy batteries, made with metals grubbed out of the African earth in dangerous old mines by small boys doing what is effectively slave labour. I have seen such a mine, during an unpleasant visit to the Congo a few years ago, and it would not comfort me much to know I was keeping it in business.
    Next, batteries have to be charged. The electricity to do this is made in power stations – often in French nuclear power stations which green fanatics greatly disapprove of – or generated by burning coal, gas, oil or diesel. So they only seem clean. The pollution they cause is done elsewhere.


    And when I see the fashionable people who stand smugly on these machines, their faces glowing with self-satisfaction, often dressed melodramatically in black, I wonder what is wrong with their legs.


    I do not think e-scooters are actually keeping people out of cars, as is claimed. Judging by the selfish way they drive, I suspect many who ride them have either lost their licences, or cannot pass a driving test. And the journeys they do could mainly be done on foot or a bicycle. But to do either of these things you have to make a bit of an effort, rather than twisting a throttle.


    For nearly 50 years I have supported campaigns to make our cities friendlier to pedestrians and bicycles, because cycling and walking really do not cause pollution or waste energy – and because they are so marvellously good for the national health, mental and physical. But the places where cyclists and walkers were once unmolested are now full of high-powered machines, ridden by people who cannot be bothered to walk or pedal.
    And when I say high-powered, I mean it. A few cunning tweaks, and their speed controls can be bypassed, making them even more dangerous. Their riders also risk them on busy roads, swerving suicidally through traffic.


    Poor Paris is already badly bruised by allowing these menaces. Back in 2019, before lockdown, a professional musician at the Paris Opera, pianist Isabelle Albertin, then 60, had her wrist smashed by a speeding scooter rider.


    ‘I’m afraid I will never be able to play like I did before. The recovery is going to be long and difficult,’ she said.
    ‘It’s chaos on the streets of Paris. As a pedestrian you are in constant danger, under attack from speeding scooters.’


    That year, three people were killed in scooter accidents in the French capital. I wonder how many have suffered the same fate here. And how many will.
    In this country we face constant e-scooter ‘experiments’ in various cities, which are really just PR lobbying for legalisation. They will become so normal that nobody will object. I don’t suppose anyone will pay any attention to this now, but I wish you would.


    Because in a few years, when the hospitals and cemeteries are full of the victims of this stupid mistake, I will be left to do what I do so often, and say yet again ‘I told you so’.

    Deny me that small pleasure. Protest, and demand that the law is enforced where you live.

  2. #2
    A Cockless Wonder
    Looper's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Last Online
    Yesterday @ 11:30 PM
    Posts
    15,187
    E-Scooters rule

    There is no contest between a 15Kg scooter and a 1500kg car which is the less environmentally impactful way for a single human to scoot around their local area and go to the shop to get some milk

    The next step is adapting the transport network to prioritise E-vehicles of all flavours and punish nasty combustion polluters

  3. #3
    Thailand Expat Backspin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2019
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    11,269
    Quote Originally Posted by Looper View Post
    E-Scooters rule

    There is no contest between a 15Kg scooter and a 1500kg car which is the less environmentally impactful way for a single human to scoot around their local area and go to the shop to get some milk

    The next step is adapting the transport network to prioritise E-vehicles of all flavours and punish nasty combustion polluters
    There is a time and a place for them. I just thought it was a good rant by ol' Hitchens.

    Per the rant , it is not clear that they are replacing cars. Maybe they are just replacing bikes and walkers which is more green than the e scoot

  4. #4
    En route
    Cujo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Last Online
    24-02-2024 @ 04:47 PM
    Location
    Reality.
    Posts
    32,939
    I thought he died.

  5. #5
    Thailand Expat Backspin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2019
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    11,269
    Quote Originally Posted by Cujo View Post
    I thought he died.

    Christopher Hitchens on the left died. His younger brother Peter (on the right) wrote it


  6. #6
    Thailand Expat
    Klondyke's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2014
    Last Online
    26-09-2021 @ 10:28 PM
    Posts
    10,105
    The E-scooter menace
    Why so many words to express his dislike since somebody drove over his toe?

    E-scooters have heavy batteries,...have to be charged.
    How big is their portion against the batteries in classic cars and elsewhere?

    The people who drive it - at least some of them - would otherwise take a car or taxi. Then, there are also people who cannot walk properly, so that's a good help for them (i know about one...).

    Of course, there are certain precautions and regulation to be taken, similarly as for bicycles and of course for those on roller skates and skate boards.

  7. #7
    Thailand Expat Backspin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2019
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    11,269
    Quote Originally Posted by Klondyke View Post
    Why so many words to express his dislike since somebody drove over his toe?



    How big is their portion against the batteries in classic cars and elsewhere?

    The people who drive it - at least some of them - would otherwise take a car or taxi. Then, there are also people who cannot walk properly, so that's a good help for them (i know about one...).

    Of course, there are certain precautions and regulation to be taken, similarly as for bicycles and of course for those on roller skates and skate boards.
    He's not directing this at someone like you who has a hip ailment. You probably don't race around like an asshole

  8. #8
    Thailand Expat russellsimpson's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2016
    Last Online
    26-03-2024 @ 05:23 AM
    Location
    vancouver
    Posts
    1,785
    You do have a point Backspin.

    I was down at my coffee perch earlier in the day when what should go by but a convoy of about seven scooters whose drivers appeared not to be missing any limbs. This should not be allowed as these folks are a tremendous nuisance.

    The people missing leg or legs are a definite different kettle of fishes. They should not be criticized, if it wasn't for the scooter these folks would be trapped in their homes.
    A true diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a manner that you will be asking for directions.

  9. #9
    Thailand Expat russellsimpson's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2016
    Last Online
    26-03-2024 @ 05:23 AM
    Location
    vancouver
    Posts
    1,785
    deleted.

  10. #10
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Home
    Posts
    33,536
    Quote Originally Posted by Backspin View Post
    I just thought it was a good rant by ol' Hitchens.
    Quote Originally Posted by Backspin View Post
    Christopher Hitchens on the left died. His younger brother Peter (on the right) wrote it
    Your comment above is a bit odd then.

  11. #11
    Member
    DonKiddick's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2021
    Last Online
    30-08-2021 @ 09:03 PM
    Location
    Bangkok
    Posts
    51
    Quote Originally Posted by Looper View Post
    E-Scooters rule

    There is no contest between a 15Kg scooter and a 1500kg car which is the less environmentally impactful way for a single human to scoot around their local area and go to the shop to get some milk

    The next step is adapting the transport network to prioritise E-vehicles of all flavours and punish nasty combustion polluters
    I have noticed them on the roads in Bangkok.

    I thought it was some sort of suicide attempt at first. I think it's just that the gene pool needs thinning out a bit.

  12. #12
    Member

    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Last Online
    Yesterday @ 04:35 PM
    Location
    https://t.me/pump_upp
    Posts
    458
    What is the law here in Thailand now for this e-scooter.
    Do they need a technical control from DLT?
    Do they need a registration number?
    Do they need insurance? technical control?
    Do they have to pay tax? How much?
    Tax according to the watt of the electrical motor?
    What if I make my own e-scooter...?
    Can I drive with this legal on the road without going to the DLT?

  13. #13
    Thailand Expat
    Klondyke's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2014
    Last Online
    26-09-2021 @ 10:28 PM
    Posts
    10,105
    Just think about it. E-scooters have heavy batteries, made with metals grubbed out of the African earth in dangerous old mines by small boys
    Such a comment I find as a joke. Does he comment similarly on the hundreds of car passing him within one minute where such "metals grubbed out of African earth" are also contained in much larger amount, not to mention the thousands people on sight around him, everybody holding a Iphone having those materials. What is the number of e-scooters and what is the number of the other monsters in the country?

    And particularly in Thailand, these e-scooters, e-motorcycles, could be more exploited. We see daily thousands of classic motorcycles spewing out oil from the overoiled 2-stroke combustion engines. Most of these people up country drive daily 10 - 20 km only, buying the machines for 50, 60, 70 thousands, instead of having such small e-scooter for a fraction of the price, can drive for a fraction of the gasoline/oil cost and with nearly zero maintenance care.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •