I've owned a private e-scooter for many years and have been using it more often over the last year despite the fact that I also use my bikes for pretty much everything.

The main advantages that I would say put e-scooters ahead of ebikes is the extremely low maintenance, extremely high portability, and the general lower cost of entry, even to get a fairly decent one.

These scooters do lack carrying capacity, and obviously you aren't getting a workout like you would even on an ebike. However, for short trips where the goal is to get to your destination without sweat and to be able to very neatly tuck this pretty much anywhere, then I think they absolutely have their place.

There had been a sharp increase in e-scooter riders this year, but we also have a rideshare e-scooter program that hasn't been implemented yet this year due to some kind of contract negotiation issue. So I think a lot of people are just purchasing their own and using them instead of cars or public transit. So on one hand, it's actually a good thing, but on the other hand, I also find that almost none are wearing helmets and quite a few are riding dangerously on sidewalks.

So there's still a lot to learn. But this is fairly new tech, and there are going to be growing pains.

Younger children on these is dangerous, though. These are nothing like your traditional kick scooter that kids would normally be riding.