I remember walking out of a store in New York City 25 years ago with my mom when a delivery man on a bicycle came out of nowhere and almost clipped her. She was shaken for days because she knew that if she’d been hit, she’d have been a goner.
It was then that I made a mental note to always (always) look both ways, not just when crossing the street, which should go without saying, but even when exiting a building on foot and stepping out onto a sidewalk. And with the invention of electric cars, e-bikes and electric scooters, it’s even more dangerous – especially the last two because not only can you not hear these e-vehicles but the riders are often going way over the speed limit and seem to have no regard for pedestrians.
I keep telling my kids to watch out when they’re walking out of a store since many of these riders are on sidewalks. Unfortunately, this nightmare scenario just happened in California. According to Inside Edition, “a man was fatally struck by a woman riding an electric scooter in Los Angeles. Police are now looking for the female rider who fled the scene. Donny Kim, 65, had just finished dinner with his wife at a restaurant in Los Angeles when he stepped onto the sidewalk and an e-scooter slammed into him. Surveillance video shows Kim falling to the ground and hitting his head on the concrete.”
Police are still searching for the woman riding the scooter. There’s no doubt that e-scooters are wreaking havoc on city streets and sidewalks across the nation and according to WebMD, “new research shows that e-bike injuries in the U.S. increased by 30 times from 2017 to 2022, and hospitalizations rose by 43 times. During that 5-year period, there were more than 45,000 visits to emergency rooms stemming from e-bike injuries, and more than 5,000 hospitalizations.”
E-bikes are not only a huge problem for cities but also suburbs like where I live. I see kids every day, some as little as first graders, riding them on the streets without a parent around. They usually obey the street signs but it’s the middle school and high school kids that I see blowing through stop signs, riding on sidewalks and getting frighteningly close to pedestrians. They just don’t seem to care. See the embedded video below of teens on e-bikes accused of terrorizing Hermosa Beach, California.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reports that there have been at least “233 deaths associated with micromobility devices from 2017 through 2022.” One of them included the high-profile incident in 2021, when Gone Girl actress Lisa Banes was fatally hit with an electric scooter while crossing a New York City street.
Hopefully cities and states start to regulate these by either banning them, requiring certain training, a special license and/or stiffer penalties for causing accidents. But until then, be sure you look both ways not only when you cross a street but while stepping out onto a sidewalk and remind your loved ones to do the same.
KEEP READING
–How to make sure the TSA Precheck checkmark is on your boarding pass
–Did you know your electronic devices should always be charged when going through security?
–10 airport security hacks every traveler needs to know
–Mom shares hilarious reason she’s not getting TSA Precheck anytime soon
–How to get a full bottle of water through airport security
Want more travel news, tips and deals? Sign up to Johnny Jet’s free newsletter and check out these popular posts: The Travel Gadget Flight Attendants Never Leave Home Without and 12 Ways to Save Money on Baggage Fees. Follow Johnny Jet on MSN, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube for all of my travel posts.
