August 9, 2018 Page 7
Scooters from front page
After that encounter, she sounded furious.
“They are a hazard,” she wrote, calling for
city leaders to designate parking places for
scooters for pedestrian safety.
Beverly Hills temporarily banned electric
scooters for six months to study the traffic
and safety issues, including riders not wearing
helmets and doubling up on the number of
passengers. Santa Monica also prohibits the
scooters within its limits until its city council
can study the risks and rewards.
One South Bay resident seemed resigned
to sharing the road with these two-wheelers.
“Well, they are probably here to stay,” she
wrote. Another person commented on social
media that scooters are like mopeds, and
should be safe as long as riders follow traffic
rules and wear safety helmets.
Another El Porto woman urged beach
city residents to think about the positives
of having nimble, low-emission scooters
ferrying people short distances instead of
gas-guzzling cars and SUVs. “People need
to chill out. We need other modes of transportation,”
she wrote.
Just as the electric vehicles were gaining
notice, a local government organization
invited South Bay city officials to try the
scooters for themselves. The South Bay Cities
Council of Governments (SBCCOG) held an
expo on June 28 in its Torrance parking lot.
The expo also featured electric-powered
bikes. “The bottom line is that they are
coming to the South Bay … sooner than we
might expect! It’s clear that their deployment
will affect not only individual cities but also
the region,” the group reported in its summer
newsletter.
The rideshare companies behind the scooters
had representatives at the expo to explain
their business models and hear any safety
concerns of city leaders. “Understanding and
engaging with these companies is a critical
step for our South Bay cities as they move
forward in crafting policies and regulations
that will guide the deployment and use
of these increasingly popular short-range
transportation options,” the SBCCG said
after the event.
The rideshare companies came with data
they will use before local city councils to
convince them to allow electric scooters
and bikes as a transportation option, the
event organizers said. Police departments,
including El Segundo and Manhattan
Beach, assured residents in social media
posts that their cities have restrictions on the
operation of electric scooters. They can’t be
driven faster than 25 mph and must stay in
the bike lane in moving traffic, according to
police. Riders must wear helmets and obey
traffic laws just like bicyclists do. Scooters
are not allowed on beach bike paths, a violation
that many residents complained about
on social media.
One South Bay resident defended the breezy,
wind-in-your-hair mode of transportation that
licensed teens are using to get down to local
beaches. “Best thing to happen in a long
time,” he wrote. “Most of the car drivers in
town are a MUCH bigger risk.”
A Manhattan Beach resident who owns
a business in Venice -- ground zero for the
e-scooters, said she favors them as long as
Manhattan Beach cracks down on how they’re
ridden and where they’re left. “These scooter
riders are out of control,” she wrote. “Enforce
the laws or ban them in MB.”
Proponents believe that with time and
experience, riders and drivers will be able
to coexist safely on South Bay streets. The
scooters fit a local need of people -- weekday
employees, students and local visitors -- who
don’t need to travel far, they say. “Slowspeed
vehicles are transportation modes that
address the short mileage trips that are
made in the South Bay. They also help South
Bay cities reduce greenhouse gas emissions
which is called for in their Climate
Action Plans. Most trips are local and finding
alternative and sustainable ways to get around
the South Bay is critical to sustaining our
quality of life,” according to the area council
of city governments.
The comments on social media favored
more regulation by the cities before they
take the training wheels off this nascent
rideshare industry. Give them a chance and
be open-minded, one resident implored her
neighbors on a recent social media post: “We
need to figure out how to integrate them into
our city safely. They can be a real help. And
yes, accidents will happen. Accidents happen
on skateboards, bikes, cars, roller skates. …
Let’s all be nice and just see how things
evolve..... okay?” •
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