Bikes on roads are required to obey the same signals and markings cars do, as well as staking in their lane (if one exists). Plenty of bike paths have separate lanes for walkers/joggers and bikes...the closing speed of one can be an order of magnitude higher than the other....
>The only reason scooters are an "issue" is because they are new and that newness
No, operating a powered vehicle on sidewalks is nowhere near as novel as you think it is, and the courts should have no difficulty addressing the fining/prosecution of those that do so. I don't know why people think "battery-electric scooter/skateboard" requires a paradigm shift in how to define a moving violation.
>This "issue" will be solved eventually if scooters do become popular enough to take part in accidents actually harm people with any meaningful regularity.
Great. We just need a sufficient number of electric-scooter related deaths and injuries to overcome the natural inertia of the criminal justice system &&|| trial bar. Then someone will fix the problem.
Scooters solve a niche in the "not quite big enough to be regulated like a motor vehicle" transportation segment. There's no inherent reason they can't be used in public spaces.
The only reason scooters are an "issue" is because they are new and that newness results in them existing in a legal gray area that causes people to feel entitled to all the speed of real vehicles with all of the responsibility to operate safely that a pedestrian has (i.e. none other than your understanding of physics and desire not to be hit by other traffic). This "issue" will be solved eventually if scooters do become popular enough to take part in accidents actually harm people with any meaningful regularity.