#scooter children deserve to live in walkable cities with sidewalks and trails everywhere instead of in fuckin suburbs

[carabbydae]

I was in my local Walgreens, buying crutches for my husband who broke his foot stepping off a curb on his way to play battletech.

I'm at the register checking out when a scooter peels up outside the door and two 10 year old (9?? 11??? Idk something in that area) boys come fully sprinting into the store. It is literally 106 degrees outside.

Seconds, mere seconds later, so quick that my card transaction is still processing, they come sprinting back up to the register, carrying some noxious looking energy drinks from a brand I've never seen before that definitely contain at least 200 mg of caffeine, with violently colorful cans that are absolutely designed to entice children like a hut made of candy. It is 7 PM on a Monday.

The first boy back to the counter plonks his energy drink down in the middle of my stuff and says to the cashier "MISS IM NEXT" as apparently he and the other boy are involved in some kind of race to see who can get caffeine poisoning and heatstroke the fastest and he will be winning it. Another child, on speaker from the phone in his hand, says "heyyy Ky are you gonna smoke Ethan on the way home????"

The cashier and I share a look that says something like "Jesus Christ who has the energy for this??" I reach past them and disentangle my stuff from their energy drinks, and head outside.

One scooter is literally abandoned outside the automatic door. This is Ky's scooter, he's in it to win it. Ethan's scooter is shoved into the bike rack 10 feet away (not locked tho). He's got too much respect for The Rules to be a true winner.

As I get to my car, Ky comes sprinting out of the store, jumps on his scooter, and immediately cranks it to max speed. At least he never took off his helmet. Energy drink in hand, he dodges a Mazda sedan who is trying to park and never even saw him, curves around an F-150 who is coming into the parking lot, and then disappears down a residential street. I am pleasantly shocked that I'm not calling an ambulance.

Ethan comes sprinting out, somewhat subdued since it's 106 degrees and Ky has fuckin left his ass, and gets his scooter from the bike rack. He puts his helmet on, but does not fasten it. He takes off at a slightly more reasonable speed, but doesn't look both ways leaving the parking lot, helmet straps swinging in the breeze.

I wonder how old I will be before I start scolding scooter kids for scooting with zero fear of death or Texas drivers. 28 is not old enough.

every time I see a scooter kid zipping around my neighborhood I think to myself "this is it, this is the time I'm gonna see one of them get hit by a car"