Society does not learn etiquette over night.

lots of things only have etiquette and no laws.

Laws are nice too, but getting people to follow them is equally tricky.

There is no particular reason for me to think casual app-based renters will ever learn this etiquette, especially given the high tourist density in SF.

And regardless, if etiquette is needed for safe and effective sharing of the sidewalks, it's up to these scooter companies to make sure that etiquette training happens before they accept money and turn somebody loose. Otherwise it's classic "privatize the gains and socialize the losses" foolishness.

Well, it's not much different than cars then where people drive foolishly all the time and there aren't enough cops to catch them all.

For example, I almost never see people reserve the passing lane for going fast or passing which is dangerous. People almost never use blinkers. Except, unlike scooters, they are driving vehicles that weigh two tons and are going 65+ mph. And they even require licenses.

So that's a pretty low bar, and not very damning if scooters have some etiquette issues.

The difference is that people aren't driving cars at 65 mph down the sidewalk. Or even 15-20 mph. Or at all. Because it's illegal and somebody could easily lose their license for it. So if you're saying we should make it not much different than cars in the sense that it's illegal, that's fine by me.