We are having yet another controversy here in our city. THe city commission just banned these scooters from the street and a bunch of people are up in arms. I for one am against the ban since most of the people riding them are young kids that are not responsible enough to ride them.
In today's Salina Journal (http://www.saljournal.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/2362/format/html/displaystory.html), one of the local scooter salespeople claims, “Most bicycles don’t have turn signals, headlights, horns,” Carter said. “These are actually a little safer than a bicycle is. I don’t know how you can take these off the street without taking bicycles off the street.”
I don't know exactly how to respond to that because on the surface he makes a good argument. HOwever the law has always addressed motorized vehicles differently and I think that is where his argument fails.
The way things are going in this small Midwest city I don't even like to hear talk about taking bicycles off the street. Here in the last year they have outlawed smoking in restaurants (good), are getting ready to outlaw certain breeds of dogs, have a long standing fireworks ban, and just outlawed the scooters. I am just praying that bikes aren't next!
I know they won't be but even the notion is pretty scary!
The BikeForums Team
-adv-
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I'll tell you this, I've raced those gas powered scooters before and I can both go faster and stop faster than those moron kids. They're standing on them, in an emergency, their moment would just pitch them over if they hit the brakes.
Most kids I see on scooters don't have turn signals, headlights, or horns either.
...jeff
...or just don't use them.
Al.canoe
Depends on what you mean by scooters. I rode two in my teens. They were almost as capable as motorcylces except for the smaller wheels. Top speed was over 50 so you could keep up with traffic. You were required to have a driver's license and they had good brakes and handling.
I suspect the ones they are banning are the new crop of cheap, low speed gas and electric ones that are more toys than vehicles. I think they should be banned. They are just capable to get you into trouble and cause problems to both cars and pedistrians.
Al
formicalinoleum
It sounds like it's more of an issue of how the scooters are used than the scooters themselves. The other day when I was riding on a MUP around a lake (it has pedestrian area on the inside, bike lane next, then a road on the outside), a group of about 10 kids, all too young to have driver's licenses, came roaring through on a variety of little motorized vehicles. They were going about the speed of the cars in the area (cars are usually pretty good and keep their speeds at about 25mph on the loop), but they were riding in the bike lane and pedestrian lane and weaving all over the place. Obviously that's very dangerous behavior. I imagine this is the kind of problem they are trying to address. But perhaps there could be another way other than banning them outright, such as restricting their use to licensed drivers?
SchreiberBike
It seems to me that the laws should be enforced. If some one is riding a scooter on a sidewalk, they should get a ticket the same way a car should get a ticket if it rides on the sidewalk. If some one is riding a scooter against traffic, they should get a ticket the same as a car. The same should apply to bicycles.
Treat them like traffic, enforce the laws on them like traffic and they will begin to act like traffic.
Punishing every scooter driver for the actions of a few is just plain prejudice.
Hunter
Those things are dangerous, and very cheaply made. People use to bring me those things constantly for whatever problems arose. They ride around here on them with no helmets, pay not one bit of attention to traffic, and race around the streets. They sufer from more problems than "muffy's" are a total rip off, and contribute to the laziness, of society.
joeprim
We are having yet another controversy here in our city. THe city commission just banned these scooters from the street and a bunch of people are up in arms. I for one am against the ban since most of the people riding them are young kids that are not responsible enough to ride them.
I don't know exactly how to respond to that because on the surface he makes a good argument. HOwever the law has always addressed motorized vehicles differently and I think that is where his argument fails.
The way things are going in this small Midwest city I don't even like to hear talk about taking bicycles off the street. Here in the last year they have outlawed smoking in restaurants (good), are getting ready to outlaw certain breeds of dogs, have a long standing fireworks ban, and just outlawed the scooters. I am just praying that bikes aren't next!
I know they won't be but even the notion is pretty scary!
Glad I don't live there. The purpose of government is not to protect you but to keep you free. Fre means free to do dumb stuff as well as good stuff.
Joe
DanFromDetroit
My view is that roads are meant to move people from place to place, not cars. These scooters are motorized vehicles and do not belong on a footpath. They are traffic and belong on the roads.
If this locality has a problem with scooter operators not signalling, behaving erratically, efc; I would suggest they enforce the existing traffic laws.
Dan
madpogue
In WI, if it has a seat and a motor, it must be licensed as a motor vehicle. As a motor vehicle, it must have all the safety equipment a motor vehicle requires (turn signals, headlight[s], taillight[s], stop light[s], horn). If it doesn't have a seat, it's not a vehicle at all, can't be licensed, and is not allowed on the sidewalk or the street (the designation is "play vehicle").