I had intended to make a video about how Valencia, Spain became a world bike capital, but then I got here and it seemed as if half the vehicles taking up space in the vast network of protected bike lanes were not bikes, but e-scooters!
So this became a video about how a city can have the right conditions (weather, flatness) and make the right moves (tons of investment in protected facilities), but they can’t necessarily control how people use the infrastructure.
This video is broadly about the importance of advancing micromobility of ANY kind, but dives into important distinctions between bikes and e-scooters, and aims to help you think about…how to think about new micromobility, if that makes sense. Safety characteristics, interactions with other public space users, personally owned vs. app-enabled dockless rentals, etc.
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Previous CityNerd Videos Referenced:
– None! But go watch them anyway
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Resources:
– E-Scooter Safety: Issues and Solutions (from the National Academies) https://nap.nationalacademies.org/download/26756
– Portland 2009 Climate Action Plan https://www.portland.gov/bps/climate-action/documents/2009-climate-action-plan/download
– Valencia Municipal Bicycle Agency https://www.valencia.es/agenciabici/es/presentacion
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Images
– Stockholm Escooters (thumbnail) By Rlbberlin – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81434886
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Music:
CityNerd background: Caipirinha in Hawaii by Carmen María and Edu Espinal (YouTube music library)
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49 Comments
The subject in the title and the thumbnail is covered for 10 seconds. Please don't clickbait
In San Jose, CA, the scooters are limited to 12 mph. Hardly usable.. When I moved to Austin, the speed was capped at 18 mph (much better!). Now I live in Fort Worth where there are no scooters, but there is a bike share system, which isn't bad.
Love seeing some Spanish case studies!
nice job revealing yourself as a facist neo-nazi. Urban planners take precedent for their "New urbanism" (derivative of the nazi's plan for a "new order") from the nazis who sought to create "european style" towns and cities to further enforce their naziism. Just as the nazis today's urban planners call for an imagined better past where everyone walks around and uses bikes rather than embracing the future which is self driving cars. One day we can hopefully bulldoze all downtowns as VR replaces their entertainment+office space and amazon the shopping. Then we can bulldoze those relics to make room for more self driving cars. It's time to embrace the future rather than calling for neo-traditionalist facist ideas.
The question of e-scooters remains standing after watching the video.
Idk why I watch but I do
Here from Conversations With Joe.
Please send someone from Valencia to San Francisco! We are ruled by progressives but still have mediocre transit and bike amenities. Cars still rule here.
Glad you visited here in VLC, Ray! I'll buy you that cup of coffee via YouTube, although I'd hope to do it in person. I'm sure you're somewhere else by now.
Great video of the best city ever. Keep 'em coming!
After watching your video, I did two fairly unscientific data collections regarding e-scooters in Perth. I didn't see any clutter from rentals anywhere – I think they are all privately owned. Most of the usage appeared to be commuters on the excellent shared path network. https://youtu.be/wJrNeiISAaM . I found that during one evening commute period, 10% of the commuters going home were on e-scooters. https://youtu.be/nKq8quJzFWs .
I think being able to leave your e-scooter anywhere is the best. That way they are always easy to find. Just use common sense and put them off to the side. The issue is, its most efficient to leave the scooter near your actual destination rather than at your designated area.
Yeah, Austin is cool but it has scooters and bikes just laying all over the sidewalk
After spending a few months in the netherlands, i have to say i don't like the mopeds on the fietspad, but i don't think they're sctually a problem. The problem with escooters i think is mostly their disposability and sometimes the clutter.
Can you imagine being the coward that criticizes quirky Youtube creators? Suggesting they take classes and offering no real help or backing so that someone could pursue reinvesting. What a garbage life that would be
This was great, so glad I found your channel! Your delivery is so satisfying for my autistic mind ✨easy watching and educational, thank you!
Free public speaking lesson!
Try to avoid ` ` ` _ _ (low energy)
Instead go _ _ – _ ` (dynamic)
Okay but when looking at how many scooter accidents are caused by roadways in Portland, consider: Portland's roads suck.
PS Don't change anything about your delivery.
I think e-scooters are nice, if you have to commute a longer distance. Because (especially) on hot days, you will sweat on a bike, which can be awkward at work. You might say an e-bike is the superior solution, but while yes, it drives more safely and comfortably, you have to worry about it getting stolen or vandalized, when parking it outside. An e-scooter is small and light enough that you can fold it and take it into your apartment or office
The second thing I find pretty useful is the flexibility. It's far easier to transport an e-scooter by car or by train than a bike, because you can fold them to take up little space. So for someone who has to commute by car, you can park outside of the busy city center, get the scooter out of your trunk and drive the last miles with it. Same goes for the train. If it's a longer way from the train station to your workplace or home, just get off the train and drive the last mile with the e-scooter.
if sandiego had less diversity
I live in a subarb of Baltimore and the roads are decades behind, car friendly, screw people that don't have vehicles, narrow roads with no shoulders where it's needed. There's also large sections of no sidewalks near residential area's, terrible design if you can't afford a car or for medical or personal reasons can't drive one. I barely get around on my privately owned scooter that tops 40 mph, ebike that tops 28 mph I have to be more careful despite being way bigger then the scooter.
I'm an E-Scooter rider in San Antonio. I would rather have a bike, but I'm exceedingly poor and a $250 scooter was easier to justify than a $600 bicycle. I've eaten pavement twice in the 4 months I've owned it. Both times it was San Antonio's terrible roads that did me in.
Wanted to move there, but 40% income tax rate including pensions and a wealth tax of $2000/month if you have a worth of $2M…basically if you sell of still own your house anywhere on the US coasts..
Really disagree strongly with you on dockless. In my experience cluttering sidewalks isn't a problem, especially if you require people to take photos showing they parked appropriately. And the convenience benefits of not having to walk all the way to a potentially full or empty dock are huge.
That bikeshare rental price tier has to be a way to get money from tourism without price gouging locals right??
If it keeps them out of aauto
Spain really flys under the radar for insanly urbanist cities
I swear people were laughing at me bc of how shocked I was when a scooter stopped for me to cross the street. Valencia 💙❤️💛
An e scooter is a bike just fyi
E-scooters are fine. Have been riding them on less than perfect roads with no issues. Sometimes it's even safer than bike, because you can get off very quickly. Also it's better when riding among pedestrians, because it takes less space and you can always put your foot on the ground. You do need to exercise common sense, however.
I want to point out that I lived in Valencia at the time of this video being recorded and if you were younger than 31, you could get a pass that made every bus and metro FREE for a year.
I've found that even when cities build out "good" [notjust]bike infrastructure, it's still almost always single lane which sucks and creates dangerous situations.
I know Paris eliminated E scooters because some of them were exceeding the speed limit more than the bicycles, and at least one hit and killed an elderly walk, and some other people.
Not really against the e scooter if they’re used properly, although I notice in a smaller city in France near the German border, some scooters were going in several walk only plazas and streets in an unsafe way that they almost hit me as a walker and they were always members of two of the food delivery services
"Pathological opposition to doing the most basic things for the collective good" – In my opinion (having lived in Latin America, Europe and the USA) – the USAs problem is not just opposition to doing something for the collective good, but outright spite from those in power towards their poorer classes. A politician in Spain will support policies that benefit the people to get their support. A politician in the USA will support policies that benefit their lobbyists to get their money, and actively harm those deemed undesireable to get the support of their base.
I was using "e-scooters" before they were cool. Only it was powered by a 2-stroke weedwacker engine. So be glad escooters aren't gas.
NEVER CHANGE your presentation. But do put out audio-only, so I can listen while I fall asleep without killing my battery.
E-Scooters as such are not the problem. Rental E-Scooters are and mostly its the drivers who blatantly dont care about them since it isnt their own property. Its just a fking pandemic.
If people would have to buy their own private E-Scooter they would care much more about it, where to park it etc. And since they dont come as cheap as bicycles here in Europe (new E-Scooters go from around 300€ and upwards) we would have much LESS of that crap on the streets.
Btw, they are treated like bicycles so they must use bike lanes and Spain seems to do it just right with mandating helmets, as you said small wheels are prone to get stuck in even little potholes, along with the high cog Scooters get even more twitchy than they already are, people are NOT experienced since most E-Scooter riders never rode a regular Scooter or a Vespa (classic Vespa has 10inch wheels) before…. its just a mess.
I deliberately hate rental E-Scooters, here in Germany you dont have to wear a helmet, you only need a phone, Paypal and can jump on one and off you go. These green/white rentals brought out the darkest behavior of the people who use them.
I am biking regularly and doing it as a main or a secondary means of transportation for a decade now. I have never gotten on a scooter and would probably not get on one anytime soon. If I ever go electric, it will most probably be a bike.
That being said, I love the scooter boom. It's not taking from bikers. In my opinion it's mostly people who do not enjoy the physical activity and just want a more casual means of transportation that's still fast and does not eff up nature. Everyone that decides not to drive and picks a more climate friendly means of transportation is a win in my book.
Your content is appreciated, as always! In this case however, I found that the content did not deliver on the video title or description: it's unclear after watching whether or not e-scooters have ruined anything.
These stupid things are everywhere and the companies should be on the hook for all the damage they do and accidents they cause.
US cities are not comparable at all to the connectivity and convenience European public transit is. Large walkable promenades and lanes allocated exclusively for bikes really make European cities less obnoxious and more livable.
I cycled through Portugal, Spain, and France for nine months in 1978-79 and did not see a single inch of cycling infrastructure. It's so impressive what Valencia, and Europe in general, has done. I finally just gave up on the US and moved to Mexico.
The city government absolutely intended to turn the Turia basin into a highway – it's a not a uniquely american phenomenon. City residents protested that plan in favor of adding green space.
I'm more of a cyclist, but I've used a nearby scooter share program a number of times, and found that the scooters did pretty well with pavement irregularities and curbs. Maybe newer vehicles are better, or those used by the scooter share program are better than the privately owned scooters, some of which look particularly, uh, low end.
Yes, docked systems seem a lot neater than undocked systems, from what I've seen. Given that some docks can take and charge both bikes and scooters, having a fully docked micromobility share system just makes sense, I'd think. Being able to end, say, a scooter ride nearly anywhere in a system can feel convenient, but also lead to a public perception of higgledy-piggledy, and make more work for maintaining the system, compared to everything being docked in a dock that charges. A system in my state spends a lot of its labor moving ebikes from docks that don't charge to those that do, its manager told me. And a scooter share program near me seems to struggle keeping scooters charged, as well as responding to reports of higgledy-piggledy.
I have a big list of bikeable places to visit now because of this channel and NJB ❤ thanks
It's not so amazing now that it has been flooded and many people have died. So much for infrastructure and city planning there. I agree that it definitely has killer weather. That pancake flat was a part of their undoing. Yep, they diverted their river to the South and resulted in killing the people living in that area instead of the city core. How nice of them.
I was in Valencia about a year ago. I've been fortunate to visit several European cities the past few years and Valencia is one of my favorites. It is easily on the short list should I make moving from the States a reality.
"beautiful weather year round" did not age well. 😢
Most people are wearing coats and jackets so I assume it gets cool in Valencia.
Can't believe I missed this video when it dropped. I made a city ranking system and Valencia scored #1 in the world (along with the benefits Ray mentioned, it also gets very few natural disasters). The only bad thing might be it's economy, as I've heard youth unemployment is still very high.