From the Anash.org inbox: A Crown Heights mother shares her recent experience and begs parents to make a change.
Dear Parents and Principals,
Today I was walking up Albany Avenue past a school with my 3 year old, 5 year old and 7 year old holding the stroller nicely. innocent enough.
I quickly realized I had made a big mistake. Oh no, it was dismissal time! But this time it was too late. Lots and lots of scooters on the sidewalk. I am someone who usually learns from my mistakes, but I forgot! Too late. I am already here. Scooters at all speeds on the sidewalk whizzing by; some motorized, some not. Most of them a danger to my kids.
Then it happened. A boy on large motorized scooter almost crashed into my 3 year old… Missed him by an inch. I am still shaking.
I asked this bar mitzvah boy driving the scooter to please please be careful and that he really belongs on the street with that, but he just looked at me really not understanding what in the world it was that I wanted from him.
I just heard yesterday of a shliach who was visiting Crown Heights and while innocently walking on the sidewalk was knocked to the ground by a Lubavitcher boy on a scooter.
These are not hoodlums or non-Jews riding on the sidewalk (the majority of them, at least). These are our sons, grandsons, nephews and brothers riding something motorized that can and does go very fast in a space that is designated for pedestrians. In one word: Danger.
Dear parents, from one parent to another, I am begging you to do some serious soul searching.
Is it really worth it for your son to endanger others several times a day, every weekday for the sake of his own fun or convenience?
According to the law, e-scooters are prohibited on NYC sidewalks. The reason is simple. Because they are a danger to the innocent people trying to walk on the sidewalk.
Please can you make sure your son stays on the street where these scooters belong. I understand that you might not want to because of the cars, trucks and buses. Ah, now you understand exactly how we feel when your son is riding an e-scooter on the sidewalk near our little (or big) children.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
A Crown Heights mother who is holding out hope for change.
I’m a senior citizen and I feel scared by these e-scooters and sometimes mini motor bikes on the sidewalks in droves at times. What will it take to wake up those who are in positions of responsibility in the community to take positive action in this direction. Must we have a calamity hash V’Shalom occur first? Then they can say they didn’t realize the reality. Should save zones be installed for vulnerable people I wonder?
Where has common curiosity gone?
What ever happened to ‘stay to the right”?
I’m walking on the sidewalk and there’s a barricade of 5, 6 or 7 boys or girls or even adults walking in a group, who expect me, a senior, to step into the grassy patch because they refuse to leave room for someone to pass.
Or when a group of men move right and left, graciously?!? surrounding me on either side as they pass, with no consideration that they just created a situation of one woman walking in the same direction between two men.
We are all so concerned about the matzav in Eretz Israel that sidewalk etiquette seems trivial.
So if you feel that it’s trivial, then please, let this be your easy act of kindness for the safety and integrity of our brothers and sisters in Israel.
It’s such a small thing, that surely you can always move to the right so that people walking in the other direction can also walk to their right, no one blocking the sidewalk, no scooters or bikes endangering other people. Thank you for listening
So happy you are putting this up! It is so dangerous and i daven every day that my children should get to school and back safely with these electric scooters all around! Please listen!!! We don’t need tragedies any more!
Thank you so much for raising awareness to this.
I am scared stiff to walk on the sidewalk.
And I thought it was only me…
You know how us older people can be — bending over backwards to accept changes around us that we should probably not be accepting.
Thank you in advance to whomever can do something about this.
This is great that awareness is being raised.
The question is if the people who have the ability to make a change, the parents of these boys and the schools are reading this.
I completely agree with this. People have been badly injured, both pedestrians and scooter riders themselves. Scooters and bikes belong on the street with the riders wearing reflective jacket and lights even during the day. It’s a mistake making it illegal but not enforcing.
It should be legal, and registered and bike lanes marked on all streets with an
enforced speed limit of 10 mph