Legal issues with small scoots

It is the same here in Illinois so the only place you can ride them is on private property.

Chas S.
My Bicycle Pages

`Cryptoman,
You've been here awhile, but I would still like to welcome you to our V is for Voltage Community.
Most of those laws were written to keep kids from riding them in the street, are you purchasing the 400W Currie scooter for a child?

Peace Out,
Gman

Now that we have clarified our beliefs, your invited to join us as we begin building on them to define our Community Mission Statement

Cryptoman,

I have had the small scooters and ebikes and I can tell you from experience the ebike is a much better ride and the fun level is almost as good as the small scooter. I say almost as fun because the ride on the scooter we very scary like a big roller coaster, really get the blood flowing, white knuckle ride. The ebike is a more fun in the fact you can breath and don't feel like holding your breath out of fear. My scooter had 12 inch wheels and the one BIG problem I found was the fact it like to do end-ooss every time I hit a hole in the road. I am glad I never hit on at full speed that would have left a mark if you know what I mean. The ebike however goes faster, can carry more and normally has a better range than the small scooters. The best part is you don't have to push it home you can peddle it home in the event you run out of power.

Don't knock it till you try it,
Chas S.
My Bicycle Pages

I am working on a letter to the editor of my local paper in Lubbock, TX. It reads as follows:

This Thanksgiving I was stopped by a policeman. I was riding my electric scooter in the wide median because there were no cars there. He told me I could only ride next to the curb in the traffic lane, and almost gave me a ticket for this flagrant violation of the law. He also told me it was illegal to ride my scooter on the street because it had no pedals. I told him I had researched it several times and had found on the DPS web site that it was covered by the same laws as bicycles. I went home and looked it up again and found that 2 years ago the law had indeed been changed (H.B. 1596). Now it is not street legal unless it has pedals, which adds nothing to it's safety. What other powered vehicle is required to have "the ability to be propelled by human power alone"? I wonder if the lawmakers have ever ridden one. I have put thousands of miles on the 4 electric scooters I have owned. Although it felt strange at first, I soon got used to the low center of gravity. They have been at least as stable, maneuverable and fast stopping as any of the street legal bikes or moped I have owned. Unless this law is changed, I (and hundreds of others) will have to spend 3 times as much to buy a new scooter with pedals, which I will not need for most trips.

-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Deafscooter Rode the Small Elecitrc Scooter for more than 7 years ( no problem with California Police )
Most time ride on bikelane zone in palmdale, Los angeles , Santa Monica Beach bike path , many place
-
-
-
only I got Ticket for High Speed 77 MPH on Long road east Palmdale ( max 55 mph speed limit zone )
Here is Picture on my roadtest top is 83.6 then CHP radar target on me run coast down speed 77 MPH.

===

Also i still using many Small Scooter include Roadtest Limo Scooter allow ride on real Street upto 55MPH
Check out ==>> Video on Limo Scooter run on real street....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WDEO_WFsdY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXvXGCAr1LE

-
-
-
-
Craig Uyeda
Deafscooter

Maybe people need to stick fake pedals out of the sides of their scooters in the states that have that kind of a dumb law. California also has some new strict laws, written mostly to prevent kids from getting run over on those stupid pocket bikes. But if you are over 16, electric powered scooters are either treated as bicycles, or mopeds if they are more powerful. Of course, my Lashout goes 30 MPH after the mods done on it, but it still looks "toy like". I have ridden right past policeman on it. Apparently, the Vespa looking kinds of electric scooters are the ones that might get you pulled over wanted to see a registration.

Holy crap! This is outrageous! I live in Jacksonville, FL and have been riding my Stealth 1000 for 5 weeks and love it! It's a great way to cut down on gas usage, and help the environment. Thanks so much for pointing this law out, I'm absolutely going to write to my local state rep to see if we can't get this thing repealed!

For reference its Chapter 316.2128. Anyone have any experience fighting this kind of legislation?

I just found out about "ordinance 38" yesterday here in the SF Bay region. No motorized vehicles of any kind (including low speed, silent, non polluting electric powered ones)are now permitted on any of the dirt, gravel, or paved trails that are part of the huge park system, including the ones that are open to bicycles. that even includes pedal assist electric bicycles. I talked to the head of the Park system about this, and they know the new technology may cause them to make changes in the rules, but it isn't going to happen anytime soon.

Sometimes I think the status quo wishes all forms of EV's would just go away for some unknown reason

Cryptoman:

Yesterday was an awesome day! I printed out the legislation in question (HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES STAFF ANALYSIS) Then, I marked up all the relevant pages 1, 4, 5 and 21. Finally, I called my local state representative Charles McBurney.

Unfortunately, the Florida House Session ended a few weeks ago, so we'll need to wait a whole cycle to address this. But I'm confident that if we reach out to our respective congressional representatives, we can modify the law appropriately. Let me know if you or anyone else is interested.

Please send an email to:

dylan.phillips [at] live.com
Also include the name of your local Representative. This can be found on the www.myfloridahouse.gov web site.

Many thanks:
Dylan Phillips

You are doing the right thing. Sometimes people complain about the way things are, but don't do anything about it that can bring about the needed change.

I got on the Park System's mailing list and will be notified when the board is going to discuss the EV issues so I can bring other Ev users to the meeting to plea our case.

That is a great idea. You've convinced me to look up my own local laws and see what I can do if they are similar. I live in the mountains, so there isn't many pocket bikes or scooters around here. I've been driving around but I am worried about getting a ticket. That money needs to go towards batteries. Thanks for doing this.