Readers React: No, you’re not destroying your neighborhood if you ride an electric scooter

To the editor: The arrival of the Bird electric scooters in Venice has indeed created quite a bit of controversy and divisiveness in our seaside utopia. And I agree that they are fast becoming clutter and present a new danger on our roads.

But, wow. Did op-ed article writer Nate Jackson wake up on the wrong side of the bed? What, exactly, is he railing against in this piece? Scooters? Homelessness? Silicon Beach taking over his town?

All of it! Focus, man!

And was it necessary to classify riders as “mannequins in flip-flops?” I’m duly impressed that he chooses to ride a (man-powered) bike, but are people who opt for an electric alternative really, truly “pathetic”? With “wasted ears”?

Jackson’s piece offers no solutions, just whiny, holier-than-thou complaints. I ride an electric scooter, and guess what? I read a newspaper, too. Shocking.

Hillary Wilson, Santa Monica

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To the editor: I can hear the indignant murmur from Silicon Beach: “There used to be also an uproar against automobiles by the owners of buggies and horses, but progress prevailed.”

No, the complaint against Bird and its ilk is not a cry of luddite octogenarians, but it is an exposure of a legitimate public safety danger.

I personally discovered quite some time ago the same situation that has caused so many problems in San Francisco, Santa Monica and, as Jackson described, Venice. Westwood is on its way to be ruined too.

The first time I was almost knocked over by a scooter in Westwood, my reaction was that it is just an overflow from the UCLA campus. However, I learned quickly that this has nothing to do with university life and has a lot to do with a greedy and unregulated sector of the tech world.

I want to emphasize though that the root cause is not simply the recklessness of these corporate officials. No authority would be able to keep the scooter-riders off the walkways. The sad truth is that even if these riders would obey the rule and stay off the walkways, they would expose themselves and all drivers to more accidents.

The answer is not regulation, but prohibition.

Peter Hantos, Los Angeles

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