AI for Health

  Driving downtown by Parcel 5 or the Liberty Pole on a warm day, you’ll run into a lot of them: electric scooters, electric bikes and pedal bikes are planted around the city, and eventually surrounding suburbs. It’s a new bike and scooter share program that launched Friday, June 4. Partnering with vendor company HOPR, The City of Rochester is offering 200 pedal bikes, 200 electric bikes and 100 electric scooters. Tom Brede with Rochester Regional Transit Service says it’s a couple years in the works – inspired after a previous share vendor, Zagster/PACE left. Brede says RTS was able to apply for a grant to bring on the new vendor, with the goal of expanding the share program into the surrounding suburbs. “It’s needed, people want this option, but it also speaks to how easy it is to use you just download the app, attach method of payment, follow the instructions,” he said. He says this is just the beginning — the goal is to get even more racks on the streets.

  Rise in deployment of kick scooters for shared mobility services, growing popularity of electric vehicles, rising awareness regarding the environmental advantages of electric kick scooters, and positive government regulations to encourage the use of electric kick scooters drive the global electric kick scooter market. On the other hand, high maintenance & manufacturing cost and ban on use of e-kick scooter in major cities across the world impede the growth to some extent. However, surge in R&D investments for enhanced battery technologies is expected to create lucrative opportunities for the key players in the industry.

  The court heard how Mpia, from east London, had switched off the scooter’s power, and had been driving on the pavement at about 20mph when he failed to brake in time and collided with Mrs Lilford. Mrs Lilford told KentOnline the crash felt “like being hit by a car”. She suffered fractures to her arm and leg, and required surgery to rewire her elbow, which was “smashed up” in the collision. Neil Sweeney, prosecuting, said Mrs Lilford’s recovery “has been a very long process”. She is still receiving physiotherapy and walks with a limp, while she may yet need further surgery. 

  A student has pleaded guilty to dangerous driving after crashing an electric scooter into a mum-of-three - leaving her with serious injuries. Joshua Mpia, 19, had been free-wheeling a privately owned e scooter along the pavement of St Thomas Hill in  Canterbury  when he ploughed into Pauline Lilford, who suffered two broken limbs. The University of Kent student appeared before magistrates in Folkestone on Tuesday, when he pleaded guilty to both dangerous driving and driving without insurance in what is thought to be one of the first cases of its kind. Magistrate Peter Goodwin said Mpia’s sentence must act “as a deterrent to other people who think they can go tearing around” on e scooters. The vehicles are illegal to ride in public areas unless rented as part of government-backed trials, like one currently taking place in Canterbury.

  Cedar Rapids Police say two children under the age of 12 have sustained life-threatening injuries from a crash with a car while riding a scooter. The collision happened just after 4 p.m. on Wednesday near 15th Street SE and Mount Vernon Road SE. Based on preliminary information, police say the two boys were on a scooter in the alley between 15th Street and Camburn Court SE. The children went into Mount Vernon Road SE where they were hit. Both children were transported to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics with serious injuries. As of 6 p.m. on Wednesday, traffic going west on Mount Vernon Road is being rerouted at 19th Street SE while police accident reconstruction specialists work the scene.