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They are available in some UK towns and cities on trial, but they're an absolute pain around us.
Paris has just banned them.

I'm genuinely interested to hear a bit more about this (as opposed to appearing to be fishing for an argument) ...

eScooters are illegal in the UK for use on public roads by privately owned equipment. Commercial eScooters, from what I can see, are no more or less good/bad than, say, commercial eBike hire like TFL's Santander Cycles. They are insured and folks are required to follow rules of the road, advised to wear helmets and encouraged to read more about how to ride them more safety and efficiently.

Who are they a pain to?

I'm from parochial West Yorkshire and we don't have a great culture of anything other than private car transport in our cities, despite what I would say is an excellent bus service in the county.

I saw the centre of Bradford being changed considerably to accomodate a cycle throughway from the south of the city to the north (Aire Valley and beyond), not to mention to dedicated busways through. I also observed from our city center office that this was almost entirely unused. I did think that eScooters could fit that gap between folks (like me community less than 10 miles) wanting to avoid sitting in traffic for an hour or more each way but didn't want to fork out for an eBikes ... and then read they're illegal.

I don't think the use-case for home to work would work out for many cities as homes tend to be out of the cities, but for big cities like London or Manchester or Birmingham or Liverpool (yes, seen 'em in Liverpool) to simply get around, I don't see why it's not a damn good thing?

Again, no worse/better than eBikes.

Thing is, the times they are indeed changing ...

Bradford, using my my example, has just instituted a Clean Air Zone and I can only see this getting more and more stringent over the coming years to the point that everyone will pay something to own/use a car on a daily basis (a subscription to drive) and less polluting alternatives should be considered. Electric cars are a dream beyond most folks in, say, West Yorkshire ... let alone a new car of any description. Cars pollute directly - crap air in cities is because of fossil fuel powered cars. Yes, I'm not dumb about the production of electricity or the environmental effect of producing new cars versus using an already produced car for a decade or more. I blind-bet a colleague whose new Toyota when it turned three years old and had its first MOT versus my (then) 20+ year old SAAB 900 on hydrocarbons and beat him hands-down. That's an aside ... a little chuckle. Old cars are not necessarily more polluting and especially when the carbon cost of production is factored in, running an old car is maybe not a bad thing.

Anyway ...

I'm sitting here in Malta watching these eScooters fly past in the bus lanes, on the (okay, wide) footpaths and everyone just seems to be getting on with it. It works.

For cities that are making it very costly, if not impossible to drive in ... surely, this (along with eBikes) is a good thing?

I did wonder how they got recharged and so on, but I'm literally just watching a van turn up and restock a rental point
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Again, absolutely not picking an argument ... just open-minded and asking why they're a pain? and to whom? and why moreso than, say, eBikes? Is it more that it's down to illegal use or some perception that you can behave differently to, say, riding a bike? I guess Paris has not banned cycles.
 
I think the principle of rental escooters and rental ebikes is ok, but in practice here, neither appear to replace cars, they just bring mobility to more people (on the same roads and paths) and lots of associated problems. The difference of the rental escooters to ebikes seems to be the people that use them. This was highlighted well on a documentary a few nights ago, which also covered Paris's ban (90% voted to ban them) where irrasponsible riders have caused injuries and deaths.
It's obviously a very big topic, but I doubt very much the escooter/ebike benefit to towns/cities from an emissions point of view. The sustainable, practical and economical replacement for the petrol/diesel car isn't available yet, same for public transport (in my view), so we're a long way off...
 
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#talesofgovanhill @Blademonkey

'I'll fuckin' rip you - ya stripey poof - get it right fuckin' up you! - ya big lanky prick!! Just as well this windae is in the way. Mone then!!'

I'm ambiguous about small dogs - not all small dogs - some have massive characters, far in excess of their bulk - terriers, dachshunds and wee scruffy dugs - that sort of thing - basically, anything that will bring a stick back is fine - size notwithstanding. I'm not so good with the sort of dog breeds that really came to the fore during lockdown and beyond - grotesque things bred as accessories, jewelry - vastly expensive - both initially and due to the inevitable vet's bills because they are so genetically fucked up. It's not their fault - entirely ours - humans. As is commonly known - all dogs derive from wolves - end of. What is new is that they all originate from a now extinct species - not the Gray Wolf as was thought until recently - the reason why there is so much of the latter in domesticated dog genes today is that homo sapiens bred them back in for the attributes they gave. Think Siberian Huskies and Malamutes. Recent genetic research also suggests that - all dogs alive today come from a split with a common ancestor around 40,000 - 30,000 bce - Upper Paleolithic, safe to say - into five separate and distinct groups - one of which is charmingly called the New Guinea singing dog. Fantastic! Fossils of canids can be reliably dated in close proximity to homo sapiens to 36,000 bce - the problem is that you can't tell if it's a proper wolf or domesticated hybrid - the skeletal remains look almost identical - they hadn't diverged much at that point. Likely the full domestication of dogs was a multi-region event - like Neolithic farming - widely separated populations of humans came up with their regionally appropriate version in isolation. In western Europe we were having ourselves buried with our dogs from 14,000 bce - Magdalenian - and much earlier I suspect. Safe to say - the original domestication experience for humans - way before sheep, goats and the like. You don't need cats until you have a surplus of grain - and therefore rodents - this happened much later. There are four main hypotheses as to the process that led to man's best friend - there isn't space here but my favourite of them is that the argument is the wrong way round. They domesticated us. Makes sense. We pick up their shit.

So, I shouldn't be pissed off with some yappy wee shite dug - not its fault. If we apply another test - how long would it last without regular human intervention? - not long. Another excellent example of home sapiens propensity for hubris and vanity.

- I.
 
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View attachment 111046
#talesofgovanhill @Blademonkey

'I'll fuckin' rip you - ya stripey poof - get it right fuckin' up you! - ya big lanky prick!! Just as well this windae is in the way. Mone then!!'

I'm ambiguous about small dogs - not all small dogs - some have massive characters, far in excess of their bulk - terriers, dachshunds and wee scruffy dugs - that sort of thing - basically, anything that will bring a stick back is fine - size notwithstanding. I'm not so good with the sort of dog breeds that really came to the fore during lockdown and beyond - grotesque things bred as accessories, jewelry - vastly expensive - both initially and due to the inevitable vet's bills because they are so genetically fucked up. It's not their fault - entirely ours - humans. As is commonly known - all dogs derive from wolves - end of. What is new is that they all originate from a now extinct species - not the Gray Wolf as was thought until recently - the reason why there is so much of the latter in domesticated dog genes today is that homo sapiens bred them back in for the attributes they gave. Think Siberian Huskies and Malamutes. Recent genetic research also suggests that - all dogs alive today come from a split with a common ancestor around 40,000 - 30,000 bce - Upper Paleolithic, safe to say - into five separate and distinct groups - one of which is charmingly called the New Guinea singing dog. Fantastic! Fossils of canids can be reliably dated in close proximity to homo sapiens to 36,000 bce - the problem is that you can't tell if it's a proper wolf or domesticated hybrid - the skeletal remains look almost identical - they hadn't diverged much at that point. Likely the full domestication of dogs was a multi-region event - like Neolithic farming - widely separated populations of humans came up with their regionally appropriate version in isolation. In western Europe we were having ourselves buried with our dogs from 14,000 bce - Magdalenian - and much earlier I suspect. Safe to say - the original domestication experience for humans - way before sheep, goats and the like. You don't need cats until you have a surplus of grain - and therefore rodents - this happened much later. There are four main hypotheses as to the process that led to man's best friend - there isn't space here but my favourite of them is that the argument is the wrong way round. They domesticated us. Makes sense. We pick up their shit.

So, I shouldn't be pissed off with some yappy wee shite dug - not its fault. If we apply another test - how long would it last without regular human intervention? - not long. Another excellent example of home sapiens propensity for hubris and vanity.

- I.
Don't hold back, just tell us what you feel! :)

Paul.
 
View attachment 111046
#talesofgovanhill @Blademonkey

'I'll fuckin' rip you - ya stripey poof - get it right fuckin' up you! - ya big lanky prick!! Just as well this windae is in the way. Mone then!!'

I'm ambiguous about small dogs - not all small dogs - some have massive characters, far in excess of their bulk - terriers, dachshunds and wee scruffy dugs - that sort of thing - basically, anything that will bring a stick back is fine - size notwithstanding. I'm not so good with the sort of dog breeds that really came to the fore during lockdown and beyond - grotesque things bred as accessories, jewelry - vastly expensive - both initially and due to the inevitable vet's bills because they are so genetically fucked up. It's not their fault - entirely ours - humans. As is commonly known - all dogs derive from wolves - end of. What is new is that they all originate from a now extinct species - not the Gray Wolf as was thought until recently - the reason why there is so much of the latter in domesticated dog genes today is that homo sapiens bred them back in for the attributes they gave. Think Siberian Huskies and Malamutes. Recent genetic research also suggests that - all dogs alive today come from a split with a common ancestor around 40,000 - 30,000 bce - Upper Paleolithic, safe to say - into five separate and distinct groups - one of which is charmingly called the New Guinea singing dog. Fantastic! Fossils of canids can be reliably dated in close proximity to homo sapiens to 36,000 bce - the problem is that you can't tell if it's a proper wolf or domesticated hybrid - the skeletal remains look almost identical - they hadn't diverged much at that point. Likely the full domestication of dogs was a multi-region event - like Neolithic farming - widely separated populations of humans came up with their regionally appropriate version in isolation. In western Europe we were having ourselves buried with our dogs from 14,000 bce - Magdalenian - and much earlier I suspect. Safe to say - the original domestication experience for humans - way before sheep, goats and the like. You don't need cats until you have a surplus of grain - and therefore rodents - this happened much later. There are four main hypotheses as to the process that led to man's best friend - there isn't space here but my favourite of them is that the argument is the wrong way round. They domesticated us. Makes sense. We pick up their shit.

So, I shouldn't be pissed off with some yappy wee shite dug - not its fault. If we apply another test - how long would it last without regular human intervention? - not long. Another excellent example of home sapiens propensity for hubris and vanity.

- I.
Sat here in my front room with the back windows open, the sound of birds chirping at one another is spoilt by the barking (if you can call it barking?) noise of a Toy Yorkshire Terrier in the next street.
These tiny rodent like dogs have been so extensively bred to be smaller and smaller that they don't have a 'real bark' in them.
Added to this, due it's screwed up genetics, this tiny creature is highly aggressive towards all humans and other dogs. It's owner looks as though she's only three or four generations away from pond life too . . .
 
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Huge cruise ship dwarfs Falmouth Cornwall.

These ships are absolutely enormous!

We took a cruise around the Baltic just over a decade ago. When we docked into Oslo right next to the castle and the ship just towered over it, I got to understand the size of the thing. They really are a floating small town of residential, recreationals and a modest shopping mall!
 
These ships are absolutely enormous!

We took a cruise around the Baltic just over a decade ago. When we docked into Oslo right next to the castle and the ship just towered over it, I got to understand the size of the thing. They really are a floating small town of residential, recreationals and a modest shopping mall!
Yes, they are like small towns! 900 tourists invaded Falmouth on this particular ship.

Invaders must die! :)
The Prodigy.

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Paul.
 
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