'Stay On The Road': City Officials Remind Motorized Scooter Users To Abide By Rules
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It's the hippest way to get around the Twin Cities, and it's getting more popular by the day. There are more than 75,000 people who use motorized scooters and the numbers are growing.
Of all the summer rides, the motorized scooter is regarded as the coolest, "It's fun, it's fast, no traffic instead of walking."
"I probably use a scooter at least once every other day," Hadi Balthai explained. "Instead of a 20-minute walk, it takes me like five minutes."
Ken Story scoots while he commutes, "Yup I scoot to work and I scoot home. It does just depend on how much time I have and if I am sweating, it's convenient for me to hop on the scooter."
Convenience is undeniable, but the hazard is debatable.
John Edwards knows a lot about scooter traffic, "I'm a metro transit driver also and I work for Bite Squad in between my routes, a couple of days a week. The thing about the scooters is you can't see them because of the blind spots, blind spots in your mirrors, you really can't see them and they really don't abide by the laws."
The city of Minneapolis says new numbers show 30% of riders aren't abiding by the rules. They are supposed to ride on streets and bike lanes, not sidewalks.
And they are not supposed to leave scooters in precarious positions. There are two ways the city is trying to get the message the first is these signs, they are trying to into the faces of the people who are riding scooters.
The city is also making marked scooter parking on Nicollet. And they are trying to educate via social media or with demos at community events.
"Stay on the road, stay on the road. It's a lot better than running into somebody on the sidewalk," Story added.
It takes some rule-following to make sure the hottest ride in town, is a smooth one.
Scooter Rules:
