A bit on an aside - do you think we'll ever have private e-scooters that can legally be used on the road like bikes? Unfortunately I don't think we will.

Could you imagine the uproar if regular bikes were only discovered today? There would be outrage about these machines knocking over old grannies and the like.

I really doubt the government would allow bikes on roads - certainly not without huge amounts of regulation - I'm talking insurance, licenses, services, tax. Bike regulation is already regularly used as a conservative distraction, "we need bike insurance! They all just run through red lights!" etc.

For the same reasons I just can't see politicians making scooters more widely available - certainly not without mandatory insurance, servicing, licenses etc. Furthermore companies like Voi are lobbying hard to keep their monopoly over scooters on the grounds that we can't trust regular citizens to actually be sensible. I mean, look how dangerous bikes are - no reasonable person could ever be safe on a bike! /s