A bill by Sen. Royce West may impose some rules on e-scooters.
Sen. Royce West
Under existing law, a city or county may prohibit the operation of a motor-assisted scooter on a street, highway or sidewalk if its governing body finds the prohibition necessary for safety’s sake. [Sen. Royce] West’s bill preserves that local leeway and specifies that counties and cities may further restrict the age of e-scooter operators, related speed limits and parking limits.
His measure, endorsed by a Senate committee, also would:
— Bar more than a person at a time from riding an e-scooter;
— Require riders to be at least 16 years old;
— Restrict rides to bike paths or roadways with speed limits of 35 mph or less;
— Limit riders to going 15 mph on stand-up scooters or 20 mph on sit-down scooters;
— Bar all e-scooter rides on sidewalks and disallow any parking of a scooter that creates an obstruction.
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No one opposed West’s legislation at a Senate hearing this month. It drew support from an advocate for a seated e-scooter company, California-based Ojo Electric, and representatives of Houston’s mayor’s office and Texans for Disability Rights. Ojo, with permission from Dallas city government, has started placing 100 of its Vespa-like scooters around downtown Dallas, the company’s Matt Tolan later said.
West told senators on the panel that Dallas tallied 450,000 scooter rides from July into late September — compared to 31,000 rental bicycle rides.
West told the committee: “So, we need to get ahead of the curve.”
GOP Sen. Robert Nichols, who heads the Senate Transportation Committee, replied: “I think you’re on the right track. The cities are having a hard time keeping ordinances up” with the rental scooters. The committee voted unanimously to advance the proposal toward the Senate.
West said this week he’s also amenable to the state studying the impact of motorized scooters. Austin Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, a Democrat, has won a committee’s approval of legislation directing the Texas Department of Transportation to study motor-assisted scooters by December 2020, before the 2021 legislative session.
Sen. West’s bill is SB549. I like this approach – these are sensible rules that fill in a gap in the motor vehicle code. Even better, and unlike so many other things lately, this allows local governments to set their own rules as they see fit. Electronic vehicles are not allowed on Houston’s bike trails, for example, and this bill would not change that. As for Rep. Rodriguez’s scooter study bill, it’s HB2715, and I noted it here. These bills still need to get a floor vote, but if they do I expect them to pass.