Electric scooters encourage lazy people to be creative

The craze for the scooter that sweeps the country now has more than a year, which means it's been around long enough to be able to produce its own distinct subcultures. There is a sub-culture of "juicer" on a scooter, people who collect the devices at night to make them pay for the next day's runners. There are teenagers who love to ride a scooter despite the rules that forbid it. And then there is the emerging subculture of scooter riders that I like to call "lazy geniuses".

To drive an electric scooter, you must be familiar with the activity called standing up. Just like the scooters of our youth, scooters offered by companies like Bird and Lime require riders to grab the handlebars while standing on a narrow platform, set on two motorized wheels. Unless, of course, you are the kind of person who does not care about these social norms and makes his way – for example, stall your scooter under a LaZ-Boy chair.

Look at this majestic animal. This rider of a man. Of course, he will go through all the tedious steps to rent the scooter: download the application, scan his driver's license and even enter his credit card information. But why stay upright when you can sit? And why sit still when you can sit comfortably on a padded cushion. As Monty Burns would say, the big leveler sits. From the most powerful pharaoh to the lowest peasant, who does not enjoy a good siege?

Other hacks I've seen involve egg crates or other plastic containers that are easy to find in urban areas and can be glued together to create a less comfortable seat than a barcalounger, but no less convenient.

Having mounted a scooter several times, I can attest to the fact that these things can be difficult to control while standing. It's a bit terrifying to try to make a tight turn at 15 mph. Cycling is much safer, thanks to the increased control exercised by the muscles in your legs. I'm not saying that everyone should imitate these lazy geniuses. For those who have a little money to spend, they may want to consider depositing $ 50 on a retractable seat accessory on eBay.

It's not just scooters, but the proliferation of editable electric devices of all kinds – electric bikes, electric skateboards – that inspires this renaissance of mobility.

I wanted to know if it was really a subculture or just a few isolated cases of ingenuity in the scooter. So I contacted Michal Nakashimada, Product Manager at Ride Report, co-author of the excellent "Movements" micromobility newsletter, and connoisseur. of all things scooter. He confirmed that scooter hacking is totally a thing right now.

"I've seen many creative ways to modify or modernize scooters to fit their lifestyle," he said. "Simple things like people adding a basket, a cup holder or a mobile phone holder to the scooter. I've seen people use scooters to electrify their manual wheelchairs. Some people have made trailers that can tie the back of a Bird scooter and carry things. It's partly hilarious, a little inspiring and somewhat disturbing. "

Nakashimada thinks that these scooter hijackers could give us a glimpse into the future of scooter design. Bird has recently released its latest model, which focuses on more robust and robust parts to handle intensive use of the fleet. Who has to say features like seats and baskets are not far behind? Two companies, Razor and Wheels, are already testing seat bindings on the assumption that the possibility of seating would open the micromobility revolution to a wider audience.

My hope is that the availability of seats and other design improvements will not weaken the ingenuity that springs up around scooters. I want to see people scotch a strip of scooters with tape to create an electrically powered recreational barge for the whole family. Let's make pet scooters, so Whiskers and Precious can get to their grooming appointments with style. I want to see scooters with spoilers and racing stripes. Funeral of scooter. Second lines of scooter.

Most importantly, I want the growing popularity of scooters without a platform to force cities to pirate and build much more protected bike paths. Only then will people really feel safe to let their scooter flags fly.