HeIncreasesMe

Have any of you encountered this foolishness? Scooters should not be in a bike lane. Being passed..cut off by a scooter..or having the exhaust of a scooter fly up into your face..is not cool. Especially on a dusty road.

BroadSTPhilly

Concurrence.

apricissimus 

I can't recall it ever happening to me, but I don't think I'd have a problem with it, as long as the rider of the scooter/moped was driving responsibly. A scooter or moped has about the same profile as a bike all decked out with panniers, and if he passes me, well I wouldn't feel bad about a faster cyclist passing me, so I don't see much of a problem.

As for the exhaust, I suck in the exhaust of countless cars everyday. It just something I have to be willing to do if I'm going to ride on the streets.

J.C. Koto

That's not *quite* as bad as a juggernaut of a dump truck barreling down the MUP at 30 MPH. About 20 yards behind you...

viplala

Over here we have scooters and mopeds on bike lanes. Not really a problem.

Jonahhobbes

YES! YES! YES!

on my commute there is a MUP for peds and cyclists that runs next to a local nature park that 4 wheel drives and dirtbikes have recently been using; tearing up the sides and covering the whole place with piles of mud - Its been really wet this winter.

Saw a young girl of about 7 riding some sort of quad bike almost get clipped by a 4 wheel drive jeep thing. They speed past, they don't care. Also their mates come and watch and they like to play throw the beer bottle -so we have lots of bits of glass to cycle around.

Good news though last night when commuting past the entrace to the park where all these idiots go is apparantly privately owned and the owners put up a "trespassers will be prosecuted sign" - Hurrah!

Dunno if it will make a difference though.

caloso

Exhaust is an issue. I have no problem with electric or nice clean 4-stroke gas engines. What I hate, hate, hate is the craptacular Puch mopeds that the Hipster Nation has decided is the newest ironic accessory. Those things belch smoke and sound like old chainsaw engines.

BRNRBR

In my case it's peds, runners, baby stollers, bladers, 3 or 4 across who won't budge and single up. Etc.

HardyWeinberg

I wound up in a sidewalk traffic jam in front of the Y the other day, trying to chain my bike up while this lady was doing a 15 point turn on her scooter to get it into the bike area.

bigbenaugust 

I had a lady in an electric scooter (the fake Vespa variety) come to a dead stop in the left half of the bike lane we were in, right in front of me and some other guy. The cyclist between us dodged to the right, but I thought she was going to pull over, so I dodged left into traffic. She never pulled over.

maddyfish

I saw one last week going about 20 in a bike lane. Since I don't use bike lanes I didn't pay much attention to her, just passed and kept on going. So, I don't have a problem with it at all.

CliftonGK1

Scooter or moped (including gas engine assist bicycle conversions) == Stay out if you're running the engine. If you're not legally allowed to take it on the local MUP, then keep it out of the bike lane.

A 49.5cc scooter (no M-class endorsement) still hauls at about 35mph top speed. If you start checking out larger scooters, the Vespa GS250ie can whip along at 70+, and there's even a 500cc sport-scooter that Piaggio (Vespa) makes. So do you put an engine size limit on who can use the bicycle lane? You may as well allow motorcycles if you're allowing scooters.

HardyWeinberg

Yeah a lot of those electric bike thingies, not even as big as scooters, pretty much can't even hit 20mph (I'm thinking the no-pedal ones that I've encountered) so they don't have a lot of choice about whether to be in the traffic lane.

maddyfish

Of course they have a choice. My wife can't hit 20mph on flat ground and has cycled all over the country. She has to my knowledge never used a bike lane. I can hit middle 30s on flat ground, and sustain 25 on flat ground, and I have plenty of choice about being in the traffic lane.

maddyfish

That would be a start towards fixing this problem.

lil brown bat

Scooters? Mopeds? That's nothin'. The other week, I was riding along in the bike lane, and as I was crossing an intersection a full-on motorcycle swerved out of the auto traffic on my left and took the bike lane. Oooookay. So I trundled along behind him as he rode along in the bike lane, past a row of stopped cars, along one of the most bike-lane-aware stretches of street in the greater Boston area, wondering when he was going to buy a clue.

Then he almost hit a pedestrian and dropped his bike as a result. And the people pointed and laughed.

HeIncreasesMe

I don't have a problem with a cyclist passing me...so what. I have a problem with a modep going 10mph faster than me passing and flinging dirt in my face. I ride on a pretty dusty rocky street. right next to the train tracks...so little pebbles and pieces of dirt are everywhere. The cars don't fling that stuff...but the moped person does.

Grrr..Get in the car lane.

maddyfish

Well, maybe you should ride in the car lane? Works for me. Has for 20 years.

Fairmont

This complaining is getting out of hand.

I'm starting to wonder if the rumors are true (bike seats mess up your private parts and put you foul).

Listen, complaining about drivers is one thing. That's a legitimate threat to your life. About 900 cyclists die each year in this country. Over 50,000 bicyclists have died in our nation's 120-year history of bike riding.

Most of them are from cars, running into fixed objects, falling (due to sand, gravel, loss of control, etc.), and other jazz.

But strollers?

Let the people ride their mopeds and scooters. They're the ones who have to live with it. Paying for gas, mechanical work, 90-day Chinese scooter warrantees.

I thought of getting a scooter or moped. Then I thought of getting a beach cruiser and putting an electric hub motor on it. I thought of electric skateboards, gas engines for bikes, etc. I have a four-mile commute to work.

And then it occured to me: STOP BEING LAZY. Just get a nice bike and put up with the three hills between you and work.

Problem solved.

While I agree that there are various annoyances and threats while riding to work, it's still FUN.

If it's not fun, QUIT.

Again, problem solved.

HeIncreasesMe

Quit cycling? Your putting 80 on 10.

ItsJustMe

I dunno, they can only do about 30 MPH. I can do that on a good day with no headwind.

I wouldn't expect them to be in the middle of a lane when they can't keep up with traffic and there's a bike lane there.

Nightshade

IMO, Electric scooters & mopeds...yes. Larger gas powered scooters..NO!! Hell, no!!

Mr. Underbridge

We get it. You hate bike lanes. Unfortunately the roads that exist in areas where many of us live are not so conducive to both cycling *and* surviving as they are where you live.

gronk40

I ride a bike path as part of my commute ... saw an electric wheelchair last week. Happy to share.

maddyfish

B.S.

I live in a pretty friendly place(but thankfully very few bike lanes/MUPS), but travel alot, and to alot of supposed cycling unfriendly areas,i.e. Miami, Indianapolis, Oklahoma City, so forth. For some reason, I don't have a problem-anywhere. Even Cincinnati, Oh. which is near where I live is considered bad to ride, I just haven't noticed.

Maybe the problem isn't with the cars on the roads, maybe the problem, in your case, is with the cyclist on the cycle.

I've never seen a road that I was not able to safely navigate on my bike.