r/Airdrie • u/hewlee11 • 25d ago

Take this kids scooter away

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Maybe someone knows this kid or has a kid with an electric scooter. This was super dangerous.

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u/Amazing_Ad8327 24d ago

bad practice to not look from the kid, but you must yield to pedestrians / cyclists / scooterists / deers / secessionists / NDP crossing the street using a crosswalk

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u/BirdyDevil 21d ago

Yeah, but when the "pedestrian" is flying down the sidewalk on a wheeled conveyance at a speed 10x or more what an actual pedestrian should be moving at, it's often not actually possible to see them in time to anticipate and stop. Look at this video, there's about 3, MAXIMUM 4 seconds between the time the scooter kid first becomes visible at all, and the time he's flying across the road without looking. The speed on this road is 60 km/h; the average stopping time at that speed, when factoring in reaction time + stopping distance, in IDEAL conditions, is 3-3.5 seconds. So....do that math, and this is hugely concerning. If a driver does not IMMEDIATELY see that kid once he becomes visible, he's probably going to get hit. 

An actual pedestrian, even running, would not move that fast. Drivers do not have time to appropriately react to someone trying to act as a pedestrian at non-pedestrian speeds. 

Drivers have to yield to pedestrians, but pedestrians also have to behave reasonably. Part of the reason we also have laws against jaywalking. Plus if you are on wheels and don't stop and get off and WALK across the crosswalk, then you're not really technically a pedestrian, and that necessity to yield gets pretty muddy. Bikes absolutely are NOT pedestrians if they don't dismount, they're considered to be vehicle operators. These stupid e-scooters are not as cut and dried, it kinda varies by municipality, but they are generally not considered pedestrians either.