A property management group that runs multiple commercial shopping centers around Johnson County recently announced a prohibition on electronic scooters and bikes.
Johnson County Management — which runs Stanley Square in southern Overland Park, Ranch Mart in Leawood and Overland Park, Nall Valley Shops in Leawood and some commercial space at the corner of 135th Street and Antioch Road in Overland Park — will no longer permit individuals 17 and younger to ride e-bikes and e-scooters on its properties due to safety concerns.
It joins other local shopping centers and property management companies that have imposed similar bans at their own commercial centers.
The e-scooter, e-bike ban is a “safety measure”
Len Corsi, the president of Johnson County Management, told the Post this week that the decision was made after the company received some complaints about unsafe behavior displayed by children and teenage patrons on such devices.
“The reason that we wanted to ban [these],” Corsi said, “is that it’s a safety measure.”
There were concerns, he said, about e-bikes and scooters “whizzing by” pedestrians on sidewalks or potentially hitting a shopper on foot, as well as worries that a motorist might hit a child or teenager riding a device in the parking lot.
He also admitted that e-bikes and scooters have become a nuisance to other patrons. Corsi said he’d been getting complaints about kids riding e-bikes and e-scooters around businesses in an unsafe manner.
Corsi said the decision to bar the devices is in line with existing prohibitions on skateboarding and bike riding on internal sidewalks at Johnson County Management’s shopping centers.
Adults can still ride their e-bikes to the shopping centers
On a social media post announcing the ban last week, some commenters complained that the ban was too far-reaching when it came to e-bikes and e-scooters and might discourage some patrons from utilizing the businesses in the shopping centers.
Corsi said adults are still allowed to ride e-bikes and e-scooters onto the properties, though he asked that they park them at bike racks before visiting the shops and walk around the centers.
“We want people to be mature when they’re on these bikes, and we’re hoping that anybody 18 and older is mature enough to not ride them on sidewalks and to be careful,” he said. “We welcome all shoppers here and all people to our centers, we just ask that they be respectful of everybody else that’s on the sidewalks.”
Other Johnson County shopping centers have similar bans
Earlier this month, First Washington Realty also banned e-bikes and e-scooters at its Prairie Village shopping centers, which include The Shops of Prairie Village, Corinth Square and Corinth Quarter.
Signs posted at those shopping centers say that the devices are banned without exception, and First Washington added the ban to its online code of conduct.
“We’re committed to keeping The Shops of Prairie Village safe and strollable for all,” an Aug. 5 Facebook post from the company reads. “With that in mind, electric scooters and e-bikes are no longer permitted on property.”
At the same time, some cities have started looking at their rules for what kind of electronic or other motorized vehicles they will permit on sidewalks or on local roads.
Prairie Village, for instance, passed additional e-bike and e-scooter restrictions in July, including limiting the number of individuals who could be on a device at one time.
The issue was raised at recent Overland Park City Council Public Safety Committee meetings as well, though no official changes are on the table in that city at this time.
Keep reading: Prairie Village shopping centers ban e-bikes and e-scooters
