If you live in the Denver Metro area, it’s impossible to miss the electric scooters that have slowly taken over the city. For 8 months these “toy vehicles,’ have crowded our city sidewalks, causing frustration to many pedestrians. The Electric Mobility Scooters (EMS), have been a hot topic for months and City council voted 13-0 to approve a new law that prohibits electric scooters from being ridden on a sidewalk. The law went into effect the second week of January.
Scooters may be ridden in bike lanes or in the street on roads where the speed limit is 30 mph or less. An EMS can only be ridden on the sidewalk in situations where there is no bike lane and the speed limit is higher than 30 mph. The new electric scooter law makes it illegal to ride on the 16th street mall and scooters cannot carry more than one person.
The new electric scooter law should alleviate pedestrian concerns and open the sidewalks from the crowdedness. It will also bring Denver up to speed with other scooter cities like Los Angeles and Chicago, where this law is in place and has proven to be effective. The new law is only effective in the city of Denver and the city plans to work with EMS companies such as Bird and Lime on a new education campaign, in efforts to educate riders on the new law.