The other day tried a “Shared” app-unlockable scooter.

So called I assume because it’s not only a common-use vehicle but it’s optimized for “shared traffic”, riding on roads with cars.

It’s sit-down, like a skeletonized electric scooter, with ape-hanger-like bars for turning and incredibly fat wheels for stability. The website said it’s limited to 15mph like more Razr-style standups, but it doesn’t feel like it. Def more powerful in acceleration and uphill, even the steepest hill the engine keeps chugging.

It insists you wear a helmet. Diagrams suggest a bicycle-, not motorcycle-style helmet. It offers none and no provision for helmet storage. Lights are worryingly small for visibility in traffic, there are no turn signals, and the scooter offers so little stabilizing mass that taking a hand off the bars to signal manually feels iffy.

The single brake is a little underpowered, and while the fat tires make for good dynamic stability, that drops sharply on braking. I stopped hard for cross-traffic at the bottom of a hill and must not have been perfectly balanced so fell over, skinning my knee but not damaging the sturdy space-frame construction.

On the one hand this is a lot more rugged and powerful than the app e-scooters I’d used before, I would prefer it. Especially for longer and more purposive trips, at peak hours, through busier streets and hillier terrain, it’s a fantastic development.

On the other hand this is basically an unstable motor scooter not remotely up to street-legal standards, for use in street traffic by riders without motorcycle licenses or helmets coming home from the bar, this is an absurdly terrible idea.