Here's an idea...
What if instead of electric-bicycles that clutter up the sidewalks & annoy the piss out of some folks, they used electric golf carts?
Those little two person "Cushman pickup" style things would let folks carry a passenger if needed, haul a decent amount of groceries in the back, and wouldn't require a helmet since the cab is enclosed to protect against the weather.
Granted, it would need more space to park/charge, but it's unlikely anyone would drive on the sidewalks in them since pedestrians might be tempted to use their phones to take a picture of you doing it & upload it to the police to report you for unsafe driving. You would have to have a valid drivers license & a credit card to rent one, so the police wouldn't have any trouble hunting you down once they had a GPS+Date+TimeStamped photo of you doing something stupid in one.
Would that be a better idea than the scooters, or just a bigger problem with additional headaches?