From the Chico Enterprise Record
This is another one of those “brilliant” sustainable ideas by the sustainability cabal at Chico State University (inspired by Dr. Mark Stemen) gone horribly wrong.
Looking at the photo, you just have to laugh. Cops on electric scooters? Maybe on April 1st.
You just have to laugh, then be angry about the waste in taxpayer money ($2499 each plus shipping) for this farce. At least I don’t see the lights and siren kit ($550) on these silly things.
Unplugged: Chico State University Police getting rid of electric scooters
CHICO — Twenty-nine months ago, they seemed like an idea whose time had come.
Chico State University was building on a major sustainability campaign, and going green with electric patrol scooters seemed like a way the University Police Department could support the effort in a very visible way.
In October 2009, the department acquired three new police scooters from Diggler, a Petaluma-based company, with the intention of using them to augment campus foot and vehicle patrols, and for parking enforcement.
…
Their economy, with an operating cost of about one cent per mile, couldn’t be challenged, and was a big selling point.
Something seemed out of place from the start, however. As officers jumped on the stand-up scooters for their first trial runs, they looked, and seemed to feel, less official and more vulnerable than on a bicycle or even on foot.
…
Starting Saturday, the three scooters will be up for online bid at Bid.Cal.com. Not only have they discontinued the use of them, they are getting rid of them and in a hurry.
Full Story at ChicoER.com Unplugged: Chico State University Police getting rid of electric scooters
I’m reminded of this:
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Amsterdam Schiphol airport police use the Segeway scooter. These actually seem quite good for this task, as they are quite fast and manouvreable (with all the crowds at an airport).
The only thing I do wonder, is how long the batteries last. Can they last an entire shift, or does each police officer need two scooters??
.
One word that comes to mind when I see those scooter riders – or even bicycle riders – wearing those pathetic little polystyrene helmets (and pardon my French): wanker!
Umm…..aren’t bicycles greener?
Many police use bicycles because they give quick access to paths and other areas that cars cannot get to. Often used in dense cities, as easy to go down alleys and not delayed by traffic jams as much.
If they want motorized, wouldn’t a Vespa-like “scooter” be better (many on the market today).
But police can be dumb. The spokesperson for Saanich BC police was telling a reporter that their new electric car didn’t have the costs of oil changes etc. Reporter wasn’t knowledgeable enough to ask about battery replacement.
(They’ll only use it for administrative work, I suppose it helps keep do-gooder politicians off their back.)
Did anybody sentient participate in the choice of these ridiculous looking toys? Putting bunny ears on the helmets and cotton bunny tails on the cops’ butts would have been more dignified, Don’t mean to be catty, but it seems with every visit to the US your “thin blue line” seems to be getting, uh, thicker and thicker. What’s with your cops and their expanding wastelines? These guys here look like they can barely stand on the silly scooters and might be better off tooling around in electric wheelchairs with Krispy Kreme dispensers strapped to the handlebars. Oh, and do they sew their own pants? I’d rather go in underwear than wear those pantaloons.
There’s a 13-year-old kid inside my head, whose pulse quickened just a bit when he saw those scooters and wondered just how much air they could catch off a makeshift plywood ramp.
“kbray in california says:
March 14, 2012 at 12:31 pm
This is what they should have bought…”
Holy smokes! What’s that thing called and where can I get one?
Wait a minute … does that officer’s name tag say “Blart”?
I suspect these scooters are less nimble than you’d think. With small diameter wheels and a wide platform, there’s a distinct possibility of the platform striking the ground during a sharp turn. The result could be a disaster.
If there were any investigative journalists still extant, I’d send one to the campus with a box of donuts to swap for a little input from an anonymous officer as to what the real story is, here.
Perhaps they should ride unicorns.
The US is sooo far behind the Brits when it comes to useful imaginative alternative vehicles to preserve the gravitas of cops……….
AnonyMoose says:
“If they want something electric, try a Segway. All the cool Mall Cops have them.”
Segway works great on smooth, uniform surfaces. Hit a bump or pothole and down you go. This from a Segway rider at a trade show some years back. The show floor was fully carpeted.
I like the Harley. Made in the U.S. (well, partly) and has serious mojo. Projecting authority can reduce the need to actually use it. And you ain’t gonna outrun one.
Just imagine those running on algae!, I mean under the boots…to facilitate sliding
How would things have gone for George Costanza if Chico State Five-O was there?…
Born to be wild. What they really need is a wind turbine and a photovoltaic sail. One for Josh methinks.
But does a bicycle really have a smaller carbon footprint. First you have to grow the soybeans, fertilize, them, harvest, transport them, make the tofu, ship it, and on and on.
On the plus side I see the possibility of defusing a volatile situation even without propeller beanies. Who wants to fight while Monty Python is on.
Down side: I don’t see where the shotgun goes.
Finally, Dirk Diggler cannot be involved since it has been determined that the vehicles do not have kick stands.
That Sinclair looks pretty high tech compared to what it was apparently intended to replace:
The Sinclair and the Peel look like they came out of the Dr. Who episodes of their times!
Any police riding one of these should also be forced to wear the same shorts as the lead cop in Reno 911 – it seems fitting
Don,
I thought this was the world’s smallest car. Guess I was wrong.
Smokey…
ROTFLOL!!!!!
The metaphors abound!
On the other end of the spectrum…
-Don (NOT Hiddioso)
Green policies went from science fiction to science ridicule.
Does Obummer and the DNC know they are supporting ‘deniers’ having Obummer election adds on this blog site????
Hillarious!!!!!!
C
Operating cost of about a penny per mile, eh? Once they take the depreciation hit on those turkeys me thinks they’re gonna have paid a wee bit more than a penny per mile. And, I mean, c’mon $2500 for those sandbox toys. At least they could’ve had some class and bought Segways for 5k a pop. Then they wouldn’t’ve looked like total jokes and at least they coulee used them on the sidewalks. Oh well, this is chump change compared to the billion here, billion there, billion almost everywhere that Obama spends on this nonsense.
Kindergarten cops.
For a green university.
Figures.
“Looking at the photo, you just have to laugh. Cops on electric scooters?”
I guess they figured they could catch Golf Carts.
The missed a trick one of these
Robocop ED 209
It is after all fully electric and therefore ‘green , and requires no doughnut breaks . And sure as hell kept the campus under ‘full control, as for parking violations , lets just say they would have only have done it once .
Smokey says:
March 14, 2012 at 4:26 pm
Damn, Smokey – That’s Good! Real Good!!!
Thanks!
MtK
How about using bio-fuels? The cops eat a sandwich and do the patrol on foot.
Did anyone think of that?
I guess you need a degree in Operations Research to come up with such a counter-intuitive idea…
😉