Get off the sidewalk

Well it’s about goddam time.

Lime scooters in Seattle will soon be equipped with artificial intelligence and cameras that, it’s hoped, will shame people into not riding on the sidewalk.

The technology has been tested in town in recent months leading up to the rollout, and it’s coming to Seattle before any other cities, said Parker Dawson, who runs regional government relations for Lime.

Lime Vision will be installed on half the scooter fleet, about 3,500 vehicles, by June 1 and all of the fleet by year’s end. New and retrofitted scooters with the technology will begin showing up in mid-April.

Without sharing many details, Dawson said the technology was developed by Lime specifically to deter sidewalk scooter riding, which by city law is barred but certainly not adhered to. Dawson wouldn’t say why the scooters won’t just slow down when on the sidewalk, as they do on the waterfront, where geofencing limits speeds to 8 mph down from the typical 15 mph.

They’re a god damn menace and the rule against riding on the sidewalk should have been enforced from the outset.

While Lime has faced criticism for safety concerns, notably the danger of riding a scooter without a helmet, many people can attest to the annoyance of being “buzzed” by a scooter while simply walking on a sidewalk, Scholes said later in an interview.

Yeah no it’s not a mere annoyance, it’s terror. It’s the awareness that you could at any moment veer from a straight line just as one of those scooters or a bike or any other heavy swift mode of transport is zipping up behind you. You can’t hear them. They’re not like cars; they don’t make a noise; you could accidentally walk right in front of one because you’re on the sidewalk, which is where people walk. You’d be dead or horribly smashed up. It would not be fun.

“The person riding on the sidewalk and ringing their bell to get out of their way. That’s really rich,” Scholes said. “It’s become a constant nuisance and it’s more than a nuisance, it’s a safety issue.”

Scholes pointed to the number of visitors the city gets, and the urban senior living facilities in the city core, as reason enough for the technology.

“We all have to uphold and protect the great walkability we have here because it’s such a fundamental asset,” he said. But, he added, Lime felt pressure to respond to criticism in Seattle and get off the sidewalk because the city is one of its biggest markets in North America.

How about because the damn scooters and bikes are dangerous?

Some of the blame for sidewalk scofflaws rests with the city, Dawson said, noting that people often ride on sidewalks when they don’t feel safe riding in the street.

Yeah now think about how we peasants who use our feet to get places feel. We don’t feel safe walking on the sidewalk, and that makes sense, because we’re not.