I really needed some time to put this in perspective, but wanted to recount what happened a few weeks ago when I had a head-on collision with a young man riding on a Bird scooter. I love the electric scooters so this incident was not easy to process.
I think the electric scooters have the potential to reshape transportation in cities. I love them. It's not the mode I'll chose, but I see how they work brilliantly for a huge group of people who probably won't ride bikes in same way.
I was riding home from work, on this sweet stretch of bike path in Marina del Rey that was opened this year to route cyclists around harbor construction. It's a two-lane bike path with a painted line separating the lanes.
This is where it all went down. There are two blind 90 degree turns. Note how line goes from dotted to solid. 
Anyway, as I hit the apex of this turn, a young man on a scooter was in the middle of my lane, coming right at me. In an instant, his face went from glee to something like fear. I was going maybe 12-14mph; I'd guess he was doing 10 mph. He rode right into my handlebar.
An aside: I've seen folks using every mode in the wrong place on paths like this: cyclist, joggers, skateboarders, parents pushing strollers, walkers. Just like I see drivers in the wrong place every day. This isn't about folks using one mode being naughty. Everyone is naughty
Anyway, as someone who's been hit by a car and experienced pile ups in bike races, I'd say the collision was moderate. I almost didn't go down, but the base of the scooter hit my back wheel. I didn't even get scraped. I was wearing a linen shirt and it didn't even get scuffed.
My first reaction was to be severely pissed off. Like that bonehead could have really hurt me. What was he doing in my lane? Then I did a quick inventory of my body and bike—fine and fine. Then I turned to glare at the scooter guy.
In short, this guy was fucked up. He had launched from the point of impact and launched head-first into the pavement. He landed 8-10 feet away from where we collided. It was obvious he was significantly injured.
He was motionless. He was conscious but not really responsive. He had a good sized gash on his forehead. A road rider w/ La Grange club had seen the collision and had already called for medical services before I walked over to the injured scooter guy.
Somehow, within less than a minute, a woman who is an ER doctor rode up to the scene on a bike. This guy had A+ medical care almost instantly. In the first five minutes he literally didn't move anything but his eyelids and mouth. Pretty scary.
The way the scooter dealt with the impact of this moderate collusion scares me. It snapped right where the handle unit connects to the base. This is why the guy launched like he did.
Imagine if in a moderate collision, the handlebar of your bike came right off the stem. The injuries, I'd bet, would be horrible. In my mind, this seemed like a sort of product failure.
Within five minutes, three different EMT crews were there. Worth noting that all the EMTs and firefighters were dudes and they repeatedly tried to mansplain or ignore the woman who is an ER doctor and was trying to offer a triage assessment.
FWIW, I tried to offer a statement to every official person who responded to the incident and no one would take one. Everyone treated it as though two toy owners had crashed and the only concern was getting hurt guy to hospital. No one would write down my name and contact info
Another point of context, I emailed city and spoke to construction staff about how to make this path safer but got nowhere. What about a convex mirror in corners or taking down blue fence cover?
Another point of context: I definitely did NOT hit my head on anything, but I had all the symptoms of a concussion the next day. Not wading into helmet conversation here but worth noting that you can shake up your brain without even hitting your head.
Anyway, about 15 min after crash, the EMTs had the scooter guy on a board & in a collar. He was talking and knew his life story. He said he had ridden to and from Manhattan Beach for the afternoon. He could move his toes & hands. He still didn't look responsive in a normal way.
I have no idea what happened to the guy after that. I would love to hear that he's OK. Obviously I'm concerned about why the scooter snapped like it did. Also, I ride the path every day and it's frustrating that no one is taking easy steps to make two dangerous corners safer.
That's the end of the story. I don't love the scooters any less. But I have a new concern about safety that I didn't have before.
