Like me, Hitch abhors the plague of e-scooters.
I think that I shall meet my fate somewhere upon a London street, splatted on a pavement or a pedestrian crossing by an electric bike or an electric scooter. I used to think I would probably be killed while riding my bicycle, and it is still a risk, but you can take precautions against that. It is far harder to guard against this silent speedy danger.
Actually, this is a comment on the users rather than the machines themselves. But that said, as I’ve already mentioned, there’s an overlap. The machines are inherently unstable – and as Hitch says , silent – and they are ridden all too often by morons. The roads are a shared resource, hence there is a place for agreed common standards of use and for motor vehicles, a basic level of competence.
If you try to lift an e-bike from the heaps in which they often lie, you will find them enormously heavy. The e-scooters, which are lighter, can weave into any corner and are the ideal getaway vehicle for the mugger or the fleeing pickpocket.
Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t. That’s not really an argument against them. Any vehicle can be used as a getaway vehicle.
Up till now, Britain took the view that vehicles with engines could only be used by people with licences, and would carry proper number plates and be strictly regulated. Suddenly, these things appeared and that wise rule was dropped. Why?
It hasn’t. It is simply not being enforced and therein lies the problem. Along with failing to enforce the use of the illegal ones. A blitz on these things might go some way to solving the problem, but when we have pizza delivery scooters with L plates going up the M32 and ignored by plod as he drives past, what can we expect?
How come you post about the same four things? If it’s not e-scooters, it’s transgender or asylum seekers or wokeism. You used to be far more varied. In addition, you appear to be wearing a permanent hairshirt. Libertarians are generally pretty chilled out kind of people open to a good debate whereas you seem to be hypersensitive. I just wondered.
I’m not hypersensitive. I do have a low tolerance for bullshit, however, and your persistent repetition of the African soldiers claptrap has pushed me beyond that tolerance – hence I will be deleting any reference to it.
When I started this blog, I mostly talked about ID cards – indeed, civil liberties, ID cards and crime were my main topics of discussion. The subject matter has changed slightly, that is all. Wokery is a serious risk to our liberties, so, yes, I’ll discuss it. Beyond that, I see no need to explain myself.
You believe what you want, then.
I remember the old you, that had less of a hair trigger sensitivity and was open to a good debate, even if we disagreed.
I have a low tolerance for being patronised as well. At least I don’t believe in absurd, fictitious conspiracy theories and the old me hasn’t changed and there is plenty of debate in the comments section here. If I appear irritable, it’s because of your behaviour, not mine.
No, you were like this when I wasn’t commenting.
Just because the soldiers weren’t wearing fatigues doesn’t mean they weren’t soldiers. It was all arranged in secret.
Incidentally, when was the last time you saw a fat teacher or GP or nurse or supermarket truck driver? They’re soldiers. Some jobs are set aside for the Army. They integrate into civilian life.
Okay, I’ll say this just once more. There are no soldiers. None. I’ve met some of them and they are most certainly not soldiers. These people are coming from a range of countries – Albania, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and sub-Saharan Africa. Your repeating this absurd fiction about African soldiers is not going to make it true. I asked you a couple of times to provide some evidence because I was being generous and engaging in that spirit, despite it being obvious nonsense. You have failed to do so. Not least, because there is no evidence, because it is simply not true. I’ve no idea why you have come up with this bullshit or what you hope to achieve by constantly repeating it here, but your obtuse repetition of it despite being asked to stop and despite me deleting several comments is now trolling and that is why I’m showing irritation.
Recently, frankly. However, this is not evidence that the army is hiding amongst us because they aren’t. As conspiracy theories go, this is one of the most stupid I’ve come across and I’m tired of it. So stop now.
You are sailing very close to the wind here.
I value Longrider’s posts and so do many others. Always to the point and on issues relevent to my concerns.
Oh, well. I’ve had my say, which is the best that could reasonably be expected. I shall refrain from commenting on this issue in the future.
Thank goodness for that.
And so say us all.
I’ve seen some of the worse road behaviour of recent years from E scooter riders.
Plod were too busy to take any action when a lump of concrete was dropped from a dual carriageway overpass onto a truck windscreen recently (though to be fair they did read out a crime number over the phone to the thankfully unhurt driver, some years ago another lorry driver was killed by the same action same place) so the chances of them doing anything about the bloody scooter menace is pretty well zero.