Can electric scooters still be useful in 2020?
Electric scooters get overlooked quite often, either because they’re “too slow” or just because people feel like there’s a stigma against them. In reality, an electric scooter in an incredibly convenient way to get around, especially if you don’t have a car but need to move a lot of objects at once. But what kind of powered scooter should you get, and what makes them so useful?
Types of Electric Scooter
Not all scooters are the same, and plenty of them have broken out into their own special types or styles to create brand new ideas. Of course, other brands have then followed them, meaning that there are thousands of scooters to choose from that each fill their own little niche. People get them for plenty of reasons, from environmental concerns to medical needs, and there’s a design for every kind of person!
Some scooters are built for off-road use, moving at a slower speed but letting you cross grass, dirt and sometimes even rocky ground without any issues. In some cases, they can even move across mid-sized patches of mud well, in the same way that an off-road bike can deal with bad terrain. These are some of the rarest options on the market, but they’re also some of the most useful for situations where you don’t have a flat path to ride across.
Mobility scooters is a simple scooter with a seat that’s designed for comfort and stability, with a major focus on normal mobility. They’re usually used by the elderly or people with injuries/medical conditions, but they can also be a good alternative to a powered bike over small distances. One of their main uses is for carrying heavy items, like multiple shopping bags, from place to place without exhausting yourself. If you are interested in this type of scooter and would like to check them out or buy them there are a plenty of websites like Keep Moving Care where that is possible.
Commute scooters and other, similar designs are closer to a road-worthy vehicle, acting as a quick and easy way to get around without having to use a full-sized car. They’re quite rare and only really appear in big cities, but they’re less tiring than a bike and not as wasteful or cumbersome as a car. In fact, they’re often used by businesspeople who need a hassle-free way to travel that won’t mess up their suits or make it hard to carry their important possessions with them.
Why would I use a powered scooter?
E-scooters with seats might seem like a bad choice compared to a large car or a fast motorbike, but they strike a nice balance of comfort, speed and relaxation. They aren’t as fast as a motorbike, aren’t as small or exhausting as a regular bicycle and have the benefit of being more manoeuvrable than cars. They can also usually go on roads and paths that cars can’t, especially in urban areas where there can be a lot of side streets and pavement-only areas.
Most people think of the classic four-wheeled e-scooters with seats when they hear the words “electric scooter”, but many powered scooter designs are two-wheeled, just like classic push scooters that you may have seen children using. They’re not that big and don’t take up much room (bikes are usually wider than them), so they’re a very convenient option for minimizing your space usage either at home or in the workplace.
Most scooters can go up to around 20 mph on average, which is quite an impressive maximum speed for such a small vehicle. While they aren’t going to work well for crossing the entire country on a long road trip, they can be invaluable for getting somewhere else in your own or city, especially if you have some reason that walking is difficult. Maybe you’ve got an injury, or maybe you just don’t have time to slowly walk all the way there and back if you’re on a tight schedule: regardless of the reason, an electric scooter can work extremely well.
If you’re buying one of these scooters, make sure you pick a scooter with seat padding, proper brakes or any other features you find important. Just like a bike or car, there are so many different designs to choose from, and each brand has their own unique way of approaching different problems. Just because one scooter doesn’t appeal to you doesn’t mean that all electric scooter designs won’t, and there’s bound to be one out there for you to try.
