• hector@lemmy.today
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    1 hour ago

    Dangerous? Wtf. So is driving, walking. What a joke, whom put the mayor of houston up to this? I would like to know the thought process behind this, I would’ve thought city leaders would be progressive, this is the opposite of that.

    • Kairos@lemmy.today
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      34 minutes ago

      It’s dangerous for a given definition of dangerous. Driving is dangerous for a different definition of dangerous.

  • AA5B@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Ahh, one of those websites that continually redraws the content to try to display more ads

  • rem26_art@fedia.io
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    1 day ago

    The city’s enforcement data from 2021-25 shows 129 scooters seized, 74 impounded, 53 vendor warnings, 13 vendor citations, 3,016 rider warnings, 51 rider citations, five guns seized and eight arrests. No deaths were reflected in the city’s data. Meanwhile, Houston last year recorded its deadliest year on record for vehicle drivers, passengers and pedestrians, with 345 people killed on Houston-area streets, a record high after two years of declines.

    over 300 people died last year because of car accidents vs 0 from e-bikes and scooters in the past 4 years and you’re gonna put a curfew on the e-bikes???

    • hector@lemmy.today
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      58 minutes ago

      What were the scooters seized for though? For being scooters in use at night? For riding on sidewalks? If they are making it illegal to use them at night at all, it stands to reason they have been harassing them otherwise. Seizing, aka stealing 129 scooters is bullshit, the police should not be in the business of neither raising money through fines and fees nor seizing property.

      Seriously, police should not get money they raise, the city shouldn’t get it either, that’s the only way this tax farming with the police ends. Fines should only be used to enforce the law, and it shouldn’t be a go to method for that either.

      The supposedly progressive city of houston is paying for a bunch of thugs that tax farm the poor and seize their often only means of transportation, based on often bad faith enforcements and laws.

      For Safety reasons? GTFO, Houston needs new leaders as much as the democrats need new leaders anywhere, no wonder we are losing everywhere, even in the places we are winning we are losing because the enemy owns OUR party.

    • Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 hours ago

      Hey, having to avoid these pesky e-bikes on the public road without braking is very dangerous! /s

      • Steve@communick.news
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        1 day ago

        “One death is too many!”

        The second death:
        “Fuckit. Whatever. It’s hopeless.”

      • hector@lemmy.today
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        55 minutes ago

        I don’t think criminals using scooters is a legitimate reason to ban scooters. Criminals use cars even more, they are much more effective for crimes. That can’t be the real reason. What is the real reason? Just they want to pick on them? Maybe the car drivers hate them all like they do bicyclists in many cities, fume of them jamming them up, not having to follow the same traffic laws. That is it I bet. This is a bad faith persecution of laws against car owners road rage targets.

  • akilou@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    Man, wait until this mayor finds out about how many people get killed by cars between 8pm and 4am

  • kimchi@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Reading the Houston city council discussion, it looks like they intend to curfew standup (platform) e-scooters. But the ordinance uses the term “micromobility device”, which is not really a legal definition of anything, and could include lots of things (even 50cc scooters). Hopefully the ordinance could be amended to clarify.

    Since the vast majority of these will be app-rented e-scooters (ERYD/Lime), and those companies already operate under franchise agreements with the city, it seems like the easier path would be to put hours-of-operation limits on the rental companies.

    Not that I think limiting e-scooters is a good idea, either.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      That’s ok, I’m sure anyone using them for transportation can easily use Houston’s excellent subway, right?

  • MrSulu@lemmy.ml
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    1 day ago

    This has to be the dumbest elected leadership seeking approval from the dumbest in society.

    • hector@lemmy.today
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      52 minutes ago

      The sad thing is, these big cities are heavy democrat. This is one of “our” guys.

      My best bet, drivers rage about them like they do bicyclists, not following traffic laws, holding up traffic driving in it, demanding drivers don’t hit them, and the mayor is playing to that road rage, while also scapegoating them for crime, as if cars aren’t more guilty of any crime allegations.

  • rbos@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    I wonder if there’s a racial or class component here. Can’t have the poors or the DEIs getting around. /s

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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      20 hours ago

      The thing is, they want poor people to have cars. Sure, they can’t reasonably afford them, but they have to have them, so they take a loan and are stuck repaying it. This means they can’t quit their jobs or do anything that could hurt their income. The banks also get to make extra income off of the loan.

    • tempest@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      I don’t know what it’s like in Houston and I know it’s known for being car centric but where I live the Uber eats / door dash / whatever economy basically runs on those ebikes.

      You can also guess the type of person riding them.

    • Tja@programming.dev
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      1 day ago

      Couldn’t be in the Netherlands, any terrorist ebike is preventively thrown into the canal. Every other ebike too, just in case.

      • hector@lemmy.today
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        50 minutes ago

        Omg, there are these rent a scooters in this city I was in recently. Every time I saw one I mused about how someones should start throwing them in the river, in the forlorn hope the universe would consider it a good idea. No takers as I’m aware, maybe the universe will come around.

        I had a memory of hearing about that somewhere like in the netherlands but couldn’t quite remember, I must have read and forgotten it.

  • Throbbing_banjo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 day ago

    Iowa just tried to pass a bill that would ban all bicycles - not just e-bikes - from any road that has a speed limit over 25 mph (public response was loud and immediate so they scrapped it).

    We’re going to see more of these.

    • Goferking0@ttrpg.network
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      1 day ago

      Just to help show how stupid of an idea it is (and how little the republicans in charge think about anything) it would have banned ragbrai.

      https://ragbrai.com/

      RAGBRAI, The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, is an annual seven-day bicycle ride across the state from July 18-25, 2026. RAGBRAI is the oldest, largest, and longest recreational bicycle touring event in the world.

      This rolling celebration of Iowa attracts participants from all 50 states and many foreign countries. It has covered thousands of miles through the years, and hundreds of thousands of riders have hopped in the saddle to pedal part of those miles.

      • Throbbing_banjo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 day ago

        Fortunately, the ragbrai issue really helped boost visibility/outage, but yeah. I can’t help but wonder if the people who penned this thing knew that going in, or are truly so incompetent they didn’t consider it as a consequence.

        • hector@lemmy.today
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          47 minutes ago

          They hate bicyclists, they are playing to the road raging bike haters. You can see it on a lot of subs on reddit, including the dash cam ones, at best there are two warring camps but the bike haters are usually more numerous and aggressive.

        • Goferking0@ttrpg.network
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          1 day ago

          They are the same ones surprised no one wants to go to the institute of freedom they forced one of the universities to implement

    • CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 day ago

      If there was an extensive bike network instead of John Forster bullshit vehicular cycling, it would make a lot of sense.

      But Iowa doesn’t have bicycle infrastructure.

      • Throbbing_banjo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 day ago

        My city alone has over 150 miles of bike trail. Compared to other rural US states (it’s an admittedly low bar) our bike infrastructure is actually pretty good, and the statewide biking community is extremely involved and active. It’s one of the few things keeping me here.