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brin_bellway[cw: venting]
I rented an electric scooter today. I figured it would be valuable information: if I liked it, buying one would make a useful addition to my toolkit.
Verdict: this *would* be great...if it had at least three wheels.
Two wheels is not enough wheels. I *can* balance, but it's *so* fucking stressful to be in a situation where the null action is to injure yourself and you must be fighting against it at every moment. I expected that this would be less bad with a scooter than a bicycle, because you're already standing up and can land on your feet, and it *is* less bad but not by enough.
(Also, balancing consumes brainpower that *could* have been spent on staying consistently on the correct side of the road, or not running stop signs, or even on having fun.)
((I didn't run a stop sign today. I did the last time I was on a bike, though.))
---
To a first approximation, they do not make electric scooters with more than two wheels, except in the sense of things that are more like wheelchairs than like two-wheeled scooters. You will not find a tricycle for 170 CAD at the nonprofit used-bike store. The bike racks on buses are not only incapable of holding trikes, they can't even take bikes with "training" wheels on them.
The amount of sensory processing involved in using a personal wheeled vehicle *could* be more like walking than like driving. There is nothing in the laws of physics or biology preventing one from building vehicles that are like this. And yet.
---
I suspect this ends with me spending some number of hours riding my bike in a circle around some quiet housing development, in an attempt to ingrain enough muscle memory that my conscious mind can worry about other things. Perhaps even successfully.
and perhaps without getting cops called on me for suspicious behaviour; I *guess* I will wear a KF94 instead of a P100 and tank the additional 30 basis points
I resent this. Life has enough challenges already. This one didn't need to exist.
I rented an electric scooter today. I figured it would be valuable information: if I liked it, buying one would make a useful addition to my toolkit.
Verdict: this *would* be great...if it had at least three wheels.
Two wheels is not enough wheels. I *can* balance, but it's *so* fucking stressful to be in a situation where the null action is to injure yourself and you must be fighting against it at every moment. I expected that this would be less bad with a scooter than a bicycle, because you're already standing up and can land on your feet, and it *is* less bad but not by enough.
(Also, balancing consumes brainpower that *could* have been spent on staying consistently on the correct side of the road, or not running stop signs, or even on having fun.)
((I didn't run a stop sign today. I did the last time I was on a bike, though.))
---
To a first approximation, they do not make electric scooters with more than two wheels, except in the sense of things that are more like wheelchairs than like two-wheeled scooters. You will not find a tricycle for 170 CAD at the nonprofit used-bike store. The bike racks on buses are not only incapable of holding trikes, they can't even take bikes with "training" wheels on them.
The amount of sensory processing involved in using a personal wheeled vehicle *could* be more like walking than like driving. There is nothing in the laws of physics or biology preventing one from building vehicles that are like this. And yet.
---
I suspect this ends with me spending some number of hours riding my bike in a circle around some quiet housing development, in an attempt to ingrain enough muscle memory that my conscious mind can worry about other things. Perhaps even successfully.
I resent this. Life has enough challenges already. This one didn't need to exist.
