Readers React: Cities risk ruining their quality of life if they banish e-scooters and e-bikes

To the editor: The L.A. Times’ calming editorial on the e-bike and e-scooter controversy is well stated. But too little was said as to why two-wheel transportation is of the moment for Los Angeles.

Cities that rank high in bicycle friendliness also tend to rank just as high in quality-of-life surveys. A look at the top-rated cities in the Copenhagen Bicycle-friendly Cities Index 2017 supports this correlation.

No question, bikes and scooters enhance people transport. In addition, a robust biking culture is good for business, good for the environment and good for health.

Bikes and scooters — electric or otherwise — make sense for cities. Still, enforcement of laws for e-bike and e-scooter transportation is reasonable and proper, but using legal means to banish these devices from our city is like throwing out the baby with the bath water.

William Solberg, Los Angeles

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To the editor: The phenomenon of e-scooters created another scourge not yet exposed by the media.

E-scooter companies are recruiting people to become their battery chargers. Most of these “chargers” are renters who do not bother to wait for their landlord’s consent for this activity. More troublesome is the fact that the e-scooter companies do not require recruits to present written consent from his or her landlord as a pre-condition.

Bird requires a renter to secure the authorization of the landlord for such activity, but it does not pre-condition the contractual relationship on the written consent from the landlord.

It is only a matter of time until another class-action lawsuit will be filed against the e- scooter companies, this time by landlords.

Nitza Ben-Yehuda, Beverly Hills

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