Probably because cars are littering and polluting cities to a much greater degree; the people making these arguments are invariably drivers to whom the impacts of cars on the urban environment seem to invisible.
Invariably? Right now I ride a bicycle to where I work 4-5x per week, and make car trips maybe 1-3x per week. The nearest grocery store is across a 7-lane stroad. I would believe the externalities of cars are an order of magnitude worse than those of scooters.
But if we're introducing NewThing with new externalities, we should still try to mitigate them. As NewThing becomes ExistingThing, the overton window narrows around norms of its use. The overton window around scooters is still wide open!
If your car is parked illegally, you get ticketed and maybe towed. The threat of enforcement keeps no-parking areas free of cars. (This works in part because cities ticket the _registrant_ of the car -- not the user, who is often impossible to tie to the act.) I think my point is: should we have rules and norms like this around scooters too?
The process is working fine. Scooters are far less likely to block sidewalks these days, because the apps now require riders to photograph where they left them and lock them up. Improper parking can result in a fine.
It's exactly these kind of tweaks that are appropriate, not bans.
I agree that they shouldn't be banned; I just also like my idea of helping yourself to a free one if it's clearly been discarded and not taken care of. :)
