Micromobility is fun, but perhaps that’s all it’ll ever be

Image Credits: Annie Saunders / TechCrunch

I am terribly risk averse and therefore not a lot of fun. When Spin launched a fleet of electric scooters in my hometown of Pittsburgh last summer, I was very old-man-yells-at-cloud.

The young people took over the streets and sidewalks on their scooters. If you don't know anything about Pittsburgh, they were a stationary menace, abandoned on sidewalks, under bridges and in the middle of alleys.

The Spin scooters were written off as an inevitable consequence of city living. I began dating a guy who swears scooters are fun, and I started editing a lot of Rebecca Bellan's work.

There are a lot of good reasons why electric scooters and bikes are a good idea. They are not cars, which is great for improving air quality andeliorating rush hour traffic. Getting people from the last stop on the subway to their home or work is a problem. It is thought that they are more affordable than owning a car or hailing a taxi to solve equity issues for low-income people.

They were dangerous, rickety and unsustainable on a number of levels. Millions were dumped into Bird and Lime.

You are aware of what happened next if you have been reading.