Latest Moan From You and Me 2024

Bearing in mind it was the magna carta, maybe charge them with treason?

In some countries they probably would.

 

I haven't read the topic but I suspect there have been plenty of other complaints about e-scooters. My wife and I were walking on the footpath yesterday evening when a youth, probably 15 or 16, came belting along towards us on one of these things. My wife is still recovering from a badly broken leg and I always walk beside her so wasn't about to get out of the way, or step off the pavement to let him pass. The pavement is wide enough for 2 pedestrians but no more than that. He did thankfully realise we weren't getting out of his way so did stop. The Highway Code advised cars to give cycles 1.5 metres clearance so, even if this had been shared footpath/cyclepath, why aren't pedestrians afforded the same courtesy. I appreciate I'm conflating 2 different situations.

 

The highway code gives pretty much all the rights to the pedestrians. It's just that nobody bothers to learn the highway code these days.

E-scooters are still illegal in the UK in public places. The only exception being where there is an approved trial, using hired scooters. There's a good reason why only the hired ones are allowed. That is that it's possible to monitor who is using them, where and when, all essential data when conducting a trial. Another reason it's possible to regulate the specification of the scooters if it's an approved trial one. A dodgy Chinese knock-off with it's potentially exploding batteries being driven by a teenage chav is not so easy to regulate.

If there beef to be had in this situation, I'd say it is with the police for not making any attempt to enforce the law. And of course with those that use the scooters illegally and irresponsibly. I am annoyed at the situation too, but possibly for a slightly different reason. I see e scooters as potentially fantastic. They could really be beneficial to the environment if it means shorter journeys can be done on them rather than in the car, and if it means commuters are more able to use the train, and are no longer held back by the fact the nearest station is a couple of miles away. But they'll never be made legal as long as there are idiots terrorising pedestrians flying around like a bar out of hell on the pavements.

 

Lots of e-scooters in towns here, both owned and rentable as needed. They are used on the roads but dumped on pavements when the user has finished their ride.

No idea how that works. Does the next use just pick it up and go or does someone collect them and take them to recognised parking and charging points?

 

@Clueless 1 v2 You are absolutely right about the police doing nothing to enforce the law on privately owned e-scooters. There is a woman who lives near us who rides one every morning and afternoon to take her primary school daughter to and from school. She rides it with her daughter in front of her and passes our local police office 4 times a day. She has been doing that for at least the last 2 years!

 

Infuriating @KT53 , but since the police can't keep tabs on all the folk who routinely break laws of that type, it's not going to change. Seatbelts have been a law for how long? Over 40 years, yet there's a man along the road from me who regularly drives without one. In fact - I don't think I've ever seen him wear it.
I took my daughter for a scan at the hospital a few days ago. There's an underground car park, and we had to drive around a for a while to get a space, but we managed it. If I hadn't been able to get one, I'd have let her out and would have found a space in one of the plentiful nearby roads. I used to stay near there, so I knew the area well. When we headed into the hospital, there was a car abandoned on a corner, not in a space, and we remarked on it. When we came back out - there was a bloke putting a sticker on it - parking ticket. There was another 2 with the same treatment. We spoke to him, and he said "well, they shouldn't be there". 'No excuse' I said. We had a laugh about it when we got back to the car. Justice served. There isn't a huge amount of room for getting in and out, so they were blocking sight lines too.

 

That’s the problem isn’t it? They’ve become the subject rather than their cause. They’ve defeated themselves. Shame.

 

Broadband bill inflation. Not happy.

I don't really understand how we moved to fixed contracts where the term is fixed but not the price. Talk about loading the deck in favour of big business!

 

They also seem to have worked it so that your contract doesn't run out at the same time as the price rise.

 

JSO does seem very negative. Perhaps they could have banners etc with their solution

 

Sneaky! They know they have us over a barrel. It would be quite hard nowadays to say "OK, I won't have home BB, so stick your T&Cs ...".

 

I think they should have to provide a basic package to all households, if you want extra you then pay for it.
Similar to how freeview works for the TV.

 

I don't agree with their cause or their actions. It's all very easy to protest and complain, but have any of these protest groups come up with realistic alternatives to oil? Until they do, they will accomplish nothing other than p'ing off lots of people.
I understand this pair glued themselves to the case. If that's true we need to do the same as the German police did to protestors who glued themselves to the road. They got workmen to remove the piece of road surface and left it glued to the protestor's hand. Protestor removed from site and left with the problem of how to remove the piece of road they had as a souvenir.

 

See this is a big part of the problem. It's when people can't find five minutes, maybe less, to actually try to understand another's point of view.

While I disagree entirely with JSO's methods, I agree with their goal.

See, I'm not an idiot (well I might be), I know that we can't just suddenly stop using oil tomorrow. But here's the twist. JSO know that too. They're not actually asking people to completely stop using oil immediately. They are campaigning to block the continued growth of the oil industry. They are not asking for existing oil wells to be closed, they are asking that we don't open new ones.