We talk a lot about enshittification of technology, so tell me about technology that is getting better!
I personally love the progress of electric scooters. I’ve been zooming around on a 400$ escooter for a year and it works so well. It has a range of around 20 miles and top speed of 15 mph, so it works just super well for my uses, and 10 years ago scooters with that range/speed/price were no where near a thing.
Do you use the escooter on sidewalks? What are the laws on that where you are?
Oh to answer your question: ebikes, pedal assist electric bikes. I think they really have the ability to change transportation.
Yeah technically you aren’t supposed to ride on the sidewalks here (USA) but there’s barely any safe infrastructure to do otherwise, and I’m sure as hell not going to ride on the street with the death machines honking all over the place, so the sidewalk it is until city infrastructure is less car-brained.
I will use the sidewalk when approaching a busy high speed intersection so I can cross as a pedestrian using the cross walk. These are always larger sidewalks and I slow down a ton so I haven’t had any problems and seems like what the bikers do.
Otherwise I am in the bike lane/bike path/gutter/road. For places I go to a lot I’ve found routes that are mostly along non busy roads where it’s more chill. Where I am the rules are just the same as for bikes. I have considered ebikes, since the range on those are comically long.