Those little scooters one sees in bigger cities are on their way to Pine Bluff. We know nothing about scooters other than they look like something for the younger set, as in for people with good balance, reflexes and that fleeting hand-eye coordination thing.
And we certainly don’t know at what point scooters are and aren’t advisable in terms of the population of a host city, although we imagine that there is such a figure out there in scooter world.
One can see them working in Fort Smith, for instance, but not in Grady. So we tip our hat to the company that is bringing them to Pine Bluff and trust that, like someone opening a new restaurant, they have done their homework.
The question that will eventually be answered, however, is whether Pine Bluff is sufficiently in need of such gizmos. One city leader wondered if there were enough places to go downtown to merit them. Yes, that thought crossed the mind.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Consider hopping on one at Sixth and Main. Now where does one go that one couldn’t have walked to pretty quickly and gotten some exercise in the process? The courthouse is six blocks to one side and the end of Main is 10 blocks the other way – and not a lot there once one arrives. We suppose one could zip down to get a doughnut or a part for their car.
Someone mentioned that the scooters would work well on college campuses. The SEARK campus is tiny so the urgency to get someplace quickly is limited. At UAPB, yes, from the dorms on one side of the campus to the Fine Arts building is a 10-minute walk or more, but the campus has a shuttle system that takes students all over so, again, the idea that someone would pay for something that’s free already – and heated and cooled – makes us wonder.
Scooters are definitely hip looking. Youngsters moving in tandem on their way to somewhere fun. That’s an image Pine Bluff could use more of for sure.
But we’ve been told that these scooters, which can be left just anywhere once the rider is done with them, can start to look a lot like litter when there are enough of them just tossed down on the sidewalk or who knows where.
We’ll keep an open mind, however, and offer a high five to the entrepreneurial spirit that is bringing these things to town. Getting from A to B could be fun, even from our vantage point, we wonder where those places are.