> instead of solving the things citizens disliked about them (sidewalk parking/riding, inexperienced riders, rapid expansion) the companies decided they should just take the Uber approach and bulldoze any opposition with money.
Are these two mutually exclusive? They probably would love to solve the problem of sidewalk riding / inexperienced drivers, but that's a very hard problem to solve.
Actually the problem of inexperienced drivers isn't so hard - and governments here (and probably elsewhere) are making it worse by only allowing registered share- scheme scooters to be used on footpaths etc., when clearly private owners are more likely to be experienced. It would surely make more sense to require a basic sort of license to ride e-scooters on footpaths or roads, but honestly I think the public just need time to adapt - there were outcries over cars when they first started appearing widely on public roads (justifiably too, as they were pretty deadly).
Are these two mutually exclusive? They probably would love to solve the problem of sidewalk riding / inexperienced drivers, but that's a very hard problem to solve.