By Matt Potter / The Reader / June 30, 2021
The e-scooter industry has long had a friend in San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria.
“Banning new technology because it’s a nuisance or because we don’t immediately understand how it fits into our lives is rarely the best approach.” then Assembly Democrat Gloria wrote in an August 19. 2019, San Diego Union-Tribune op-ed piece. “I don’t believe that banning dockless electric scooters is the right answer, either,” added Gloria. “We have to think bigger than a ban. That’s not the easy answer, but it’s the one that will get us closer to creating a city that works for all of us.” …
The frenzy of electric scooters filling the streets of San Diego has begun to grow anew as the state lifts its last anti-pandemic strictures.
Burgeoning too are the ranks of local lobbyists lining up downtown to grease political wheels as the city edges closer to crafting another round of regulations. Now, word of the recent e-scooter-related death of a noted stage and movie actress on the streets of New York City has raised new safety questions about the popular means of conveyance.
Among the latest to join the lucrative San Diego influence-peddling gold rush is Causa Consulting, a lobbying firm run by Democratic ex-city councilman and mayoral candidate David Alvarez, working on behalf of Bird scooters. Among Alvarez’s tasks, according to a June 15 disclosure filing, is to “identify/ include equity and access components in the city’s Shared Mobility Device program, future [Requests for Proposals], and other regulations related to the city’s program.’’
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The deathtraps don’t belong anywhere but the junkyard. They are inherently unstable on anything but perfectly level pavement. This hit and run . . . tragic, but what the heck were the riders doing sharing a scooter? The few rules we have for the damn things include a prohibition against doubling up! Good luck at pressing an insurance claim, folks.
https://fox5sandiego.com/traffic/scooter-struck-in-hit-and-run-downtown/
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From now on I’m going to call our mayor “Scooter” Gloria as in “Did you hear that a person died of a traumatic head injury because of Scooter Gloria’s bill making helmets optional on e scooters?”
A scooter ban is highly unlikely: deaths & injuries’ will continue! Who’s going to unforce any regulations? At the very least, they should be in paid parking lots: CVS? Every thing for the tourists, to hell with locals. Elected officials seem deaf to our needs! How many DUI’s on scooters?