Dispatch

A Lime scooter rider seriously injured a downtown Milwaukee nightclub owner on the sidewalk last week, leaving him with spinal fractures, broken ribs and a broken foot. The rider, who admitted he knew sidewalk riding was banned, was arrested and charged with a felony, and that accountability is warranted. Riding e-mobility on sidewalks is dangerous and illegal, and several Wisconsin towns are now weighing new restrictions in response. I think the bigger picture is still worth holding onto, though, because these are early days for e-mobility and everyone (riders, cities and operators) is still learning. Even now, these devices ask far less of a city in space, cost, and danger to others than the private cars we treat as normal. The larger risk I worry about is that a patchwork of town-by-town bans shuts the door on it before it can grow into reliable everyday transportation that is cheaper and safer than driving.

This six-minute explainer breaks down how the country talked itself into car dependence after World War II. Milwaukee was right in the mix. We had a real streetcar network once, and we ripped it out ourselves (a story this site will absolutely come back to).