My latest unsolicited electric vehicle rant

[Ghoste]

Okay, I'm not sure how popular they are where you live but around here there are a lot of people starting to use these "e bikes".  Little electric scooters that these morons insist on driving on the highway at 30 rocketing mph.  But thats not my rant today because this e bike meeting took place in town.  Its raining here tonight and I was travelling down a stretch of four lane where there happened to be no street lights.  Suddenly I found myself staring right at the back of one of the little electric menaces and had I been going faster or the rain coming a little harder I likely would have rear ended him as his taillight wasn't on.  But trying to be a good neighbor and an open minded welcomer of this save the planet forward thinking mode of transportation, I casually pulled up beside him and shouted that he didn't have his lights on.
His response, you ask?
"I know, if I run the lights it kills the battery too quickly and I can't get anywhere". 
I wanted to point out that dead people don't travel far either but decided that it wasn't up to me to interfere with natural selection.
Electric vehicles are going to save the planet and they are going to do it by killing all the people.

[ws23rt]

Natural selection is a strong force and has worked for the well being of the whole for millions of years.

We should let it takes it's course

[bull]

Electric vehicles are going to save the planet and they are going to do it by killing off all the morons who own them.

Fixed.

[70 sublime]

I came up on one of these electric scooters one day not too long ago
He was swerving around the pot holes along the edge of the road
When I got up beside him I could see he had a flat screen TV sitting on the floor in front of his feet and behind the handle bars
It was a sticking out a foot wider than the bike on both sides
Wish I had the camera with me that day

[hatersaurusrex]

Amazing that manufacturers don't have the foresight to see that.   Simply add a sensor that turns the lights on in low visibility situations no matter what and boom - fixed.

Also move all the Whole Foods and Vegan buffets outside the city limits and the problem will solve itself.

[JB400]

We don't have the electric scooters here, but the regular gas versions are all over the place.  Our local highway just got turned into an interstate.  Minimum speed limit of 40 mph.  I was headed home on this interstate late at night and seen one taillight ahead of me.  I didn't think too much of it until I noticed I was coming up on it really fast.  I pull over to pass, and sure enough, it's one of these little scooters.  I know for a fact that he wasn't doing the minimum speed limit.

Don't get me started about the ones on city streets.  Those people have a death wish cutting people off the way that they do.

[hatersaurusrex]

Down around the beach areas in North Florida where I used to live it was fine.  People drove scooters and golf carts everywhere.  But when they'd come in from town, pretend to be all beachy, then get back out on the highway to go home it would cause all kinds of havoc.  My 84 Jeep has some pretty crummy brakes and I almost turned one guy and his girlfriend into road sushi coming down JT Butler.

[myk]

It's the people, not the 'tech.  Human beings will always have the ability to take a good thing and make it worthless...,

[Fred]

It's the people, not the 'tech.  Human beings will always have the ability to take a good thing and make it worthless...,

That's why I have such a huge aversion to them (people).

[Ghoste]

If the tech is so great, why did he need to shut off lighting in order to have enough power?

[JB400]

Careless about how far he was driving.  Otherwise, he'd pay closer attention to traveling in his radius.  Electric vehicles do require a lifestyle change.

[Ghoste]

Meaning the technology is limited.  In one hundred years, the range has not improved significantly.  The owner committed a dangerous act to circumvent the limited technology.

[F8-4life]

I mess around with older 70's mopeds... it is simply amazing how people zone out on the road. They drive like they are sitting on the couch.
No awarness of the danger.

[chargerboy69]

We don't have the electric scooters here, but the regular gas versions are all over the place. 

Thats what we have here too.  Mainly operated by the multiple DUI offender.

That is the one thing I like about winter. . the scooter goes away.

Here in Fort Wayne, you do not need a license, plates or insurance.  So if you happen to get hit by one, you better have full coverage because they will not have any. 

[twodko]

Ghoste,you and hatersaurusrex have made my day! One the all time funniest rants......factual dissertations IMO, I've had the pleasure if reading. GAWDDAMN you guys are funny!

Sending beer and pizza your way.

[Cooter]

And now you know how America ended up in the position its in right now. These people vote too.

[bill440rt]

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br8DpUOyCwI

[green69rt]

I use to ride motorcycles all the time and one thing I learned real quick is that I had to watch out for myself.  I was hard to see, even with my lights on.  I didn't jump around the lanes, I didn't draft other vehicles, and I didn't drink and drive my MC.  My philosophy was that I would not let anyone else hurt me.   The guy riding in the dark with no lights was about as stupid as you can get, maybe on a suicide mission??

[Ghoste]

And now you know how America ended up in the position its in right now. These people vote too.

And the same thing is why The Adventures of Honey Booboo is popular entertainment.

[myk]

The tech is great for what it is but it has it's limitations; people who adopt it need to understand this and live accordingly.  The 'tech ended up "sucking" because some idiot decided that his needs and agenda were more important than everyone else on the road.

Personally, that's MY rant; people, drivers behave as if they're the only ones on the roads, the only ones whose destination, schedule or lives are more important than everyone else's.  Crappy operators of whatever vehicles behave as they do because they don't care about what their actions have the potential of doing to everyone else.  Personally, I wouldn't have a problem with an idiot like your scooter operator to get mauled because he didn't use common sense and acted selfishly, but I would feel bad for the person who would end up living with the guilt of running down an idiot for the rest of their life...

[JB400]

Just because it's on TV, doesn't mean it's entertainment.  Some shows are just meant to be trash.

Back to the e v debacle, what I see is a nuisance is the people on Hove arounds or similar vehicles.  While they're supposed to be for handicapped people, I've seen a lot of regular folks using them as well.   Quite a few of these people have no respect for the rules of the road.  Several times I've seen these people stop 4 lanes of traffic just to get across.  If they're not crossing them, they're going down the same roads instead of using the sidewalks.  Fatalities are going to start piling up if these people don't start paying attention and some rules made to accommodate these people.

[Ghoste]

Yes, those ones piss me off too.

[ws23rt]

Where I live bicycles are a driving challenge.  I came around a corner on a two lane back road one day and was stopped by a woman on a bicycle pulling a double wide child carrier with two kids in it.  There was no shoulder and many blind corners on the road. The posted speed was 45mph. I had to wait for open road to pass while hoping someone behind me was on the ball.

These roads and speed laws are made for something that can keep up  Sometimes even joggers get in the way.

I've hit several deer (those sounds and images are hard to shake) and can only imagine what a bad day it would be to kill someone. Even if they may be completely at fault. I would be a victim as well for the rest of my life.  

[Fred]

What gets me is that the cyclists ride side by side on these dangerously curving/winding roads (we have them in my immediate area and as the hills are a tourist attraction we get them all the time) without any thought to the consequences putting their lives in danger. It's that "someone else's responsibility for my actions" attitude that really galls me. I have to blast them with my horn before they even cotton on to the fact that they're taking up the road and they act like they have every right.

[twodko]

Oh man, now I gotta rant on bicyclists!
Here in once lovely northern Peoples Republik of Kalifornia every uber ultra green weeny liberal town and city is passing ordinances allowing bicyclists to take legal action against a motorist who they feel has threatened or affronted them somehow. Yet they refuse to be licensed just like automobiles with license plates so motorists have the same legal recourse. POS bike riders........they have a monthly ride in SF they call critical mass. The cops allow the bastards to do at commute time! They are known as critical massholes. I'm amazed many haven't been offed by people stuck in hell traffic because of the gridlock they cause.

The motor vehicle code requires cyclists to ride single file but they flaunt it and ride tandem. It gets better......several local towns have also passed a "3' barrier" law that requires motorist to give bike riders a 3' "safety space" when passing them even on narrow single lane roads. Bike riders don't ride in clearly define bike lanes either, they ride the line itself saying that road debris makes it dangerous for them to stay in the bike lane!

Cities and towns are creating special classes of people whose "rights" supersede those of the majority.

I say, jihad on their asses! I have an very low opinion of bicyclist. Now let me tell you how I really feel.........