>>Maybe they are hoping that if enough people use them then the Govt will cave-in and allow them on the road.
The Government (actually various bits of the civil service and the police) don't like the lack of legislation on a pedal cycle and like less the legislation on elect assisted cycles so I really cannot see them let escooters through the door.
In the media the problem comes from all the people who don't want to do it so believe that nobody should be allowed to. But the real problem is insurance.
If it is a rental you can make the rental company carry liability insurance. You cannot do the same to a scooter unless you make it a road vehicle and then you walk into construction and use regulation.
However, escooters get updates, not dissimilar to what happens with cell phones. And the latest updates have been restricting the scooters, even ones already sold and on the market. They've removed cruise control (which was a dumb idea anyway) they've dropped the top speed to 15mph, and they're trying to lock the scooters so that they cannot be hacked.
And they've started developing geographical differences in their performance. All of which is aimed at making scooters more acceptable to officialdom.
At 15mph they really are not much different in capability to a bicycle. Other than the fact that no physical fitness is required. They're silent, but so are bikes pretty much, they accelerate about the same as a bike and are, if anything, lighter.
If they can restrict the speed then a lot of the trouble ought to go away. The UK is not the only one, BTW. They are certainly still illegal in the Netherlands, for example.
But some of them are insane and 100% should not be allowed anywhere near a road. Look at this for example.
domiservi.cl/dokma/productos/dhs3200w/
90kmh FFS. (55mph). Insane. I was speaking to a guy riding one the other day. He was wearing a full face helmet and body armour (like the dirt bike competitors wear). He was saying that it was fantastic but so dangerous. The scooter is far too fast. He offered me a go and I took it down the road and back at a max of 20mph. It scared the crap out of me.
If I was in charge, as of course I should be, I would take all private cars and heavy transport off the roads of Santiago and make it entirely two wheel and public transport friendly and freely allow speed restricted scooters.
However, more than anything, along the lines of what Haywain said, this is more fun than when I was a kid and discovered home made wooden go-karts with pram wheels.
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