Opinion: E-scooters should be prohibited for safety reasons

E-scooters should not be allowed in any cities because of safety hazards and precautions. Not only for safety reasons, but for the sake of preventing any future accidents and issues with people in the community.

According to an NPR article, none of these e-scooters provide helmets, which then lead to people riding without any safety gear. In addition to people not wearing any safety gear while riding these scooters, it is against the rules to not wear any gear that will protect you from any accidents. If the whole point is to change the amount of people getting into accidents, why is it that the community continues to add more transportation options without any safety gear? Why do we continue to allow more people to violate these rules?

In an Los Angeles Times Article, Robin Abcarian stated that when she herself was riding a Bird electric scooter, she crashed because a bicyclist was riding with headphones on and unfortunately didn’t hear her yelling when she turned in front of her on the bike path. Abcarian hasn’t used a Bird since. She also said that most riders don’t use the helmets that are already provided. The fact that these Bird electric scooters do provide helmets and yet people still don’t use them demonstrates a lot. If the city cared a lot about safety hazards and precautions, why don’t they have a security guard somewhere near by making sure they wear their safety gear? Are people using these scooters even signing a contract in case anything were to happen to them?

According to a different LA Times article by Emilia Crotty, executive director of Los Angeles Walks, the increase in pedestrian deaths isn’t a shocker for anyone who walks in Los Angeles and almost gets hit by a speeding driver. She also stated that the city had learned hard lessons based on situations that have already been occurring.

No one should be walking from any destination to another and have that thought in their head that they might get run over one day because it’s not a surprise to them anymore. Pedestrians should feel safe walking, running and even standing waiting for the bus or something. We as human beings shouldn’t have to allow these things to occur just so that there can be a change in the near future.

Overall, e-scooters are only an addition to increase the amount of deaths not only in LA, but in any other city or state. Based on the data above, safety is an issue here in LA and only continues to get worse, which is why I am against having any electric scooters around.