Shawnee’s governing body is looking into new safety regulations for motorized scooters in the city.
On Sept. 22, the Shawnee Council Committee updating the city’s Municipal Code to include regulations for motorized scooters within the city limits, including new helmet requirements and providing more education for younger riders.
The discussion comes as other cities in Johnson County, like Prairie Village and Fairway, discussed restrictions on motorized bikes and scooters, as well as shopping centers in Prairie Village and other parts of Johnson County cracking down on them.
“I would love to have a scooter. They look really fun. But the problem is 10 year olds don’t know the rules of the road and probably don’t have a good judgment either, but I see them fly right right across the street without even looking,” said Councilmember Kurt Knappen during the meeting. “It worries me a lot.”
Because the agenda item was for informational purposes only, no vote was taken by the committee on the subject.
The city is looking to include scooters in municipal code
While the city’s municipal ordinances has regulations for bicycles and motorized and electric-assisted bicycles, it has none specifically for motorized scooters.
The closest the municipal code gets to addressing scooters is its regulations for motorized skateboards, which can be modified to include scooters and unicycles, Leena Bellmann, senior prosecutor for the City of Shawnee, said during the meeting.
“That definition talks about any self-propelled device with a motor or engine and a dock on which a person may ride and have at least two wheels in contact with the ground,” she said. “If we’re ignoring the skateboard portion, because it doesn’t require the absence of a handlebar, we could easily apply this ordinance to scooters.”
The ordinance requires motorized skateboards to be driven on city sidewalks, not streets.
City staff proposed modifying the definition of motorized skateboards to include electronic scooters and unicycles. While it would continue to prohibit riding them on any street, road or highway, it does allow for them to be used when crossing a street or highway.
The proposed change would also modify the requirement of a scooter needing two wheels on the ground to one wheel, so it can include motorized unicycles.
“The thought would be to, rather than creating an entirely new chapter that covers scooters, include that in motorized skateboard, so that if an officer is on scene, it’s easier to navigate and see that that definition could apply to scooters,” Bellmann said.
Police prefer education-first approach
While more e-bikes and scooters are out on the road, Shawnee police have only received a few calls and responded to three crashes, which resulted in minor injuries, Shawnee Police Chief Sam Larson said during the meeting.
When called to the scene of a complaint involving a motorized scooter, Larson said Shawnee police’s goal is less about punishment and more about education.
“Like a lot of stuff we do at the police department, we want it to be education-based enforcement, meaning we’re not going to go out and write tickets. We prefer to educate the riders,” he said.
The modification to the ordinance would include educating riders through brochures, social media posts and talking with neighborhoods and homeowners associations about local ordinances for scooters, Larson said.
“We want to make the standards very easy, so that all of us can understand (them). The council can understand them, the police department can understand them, the parents and the kids, more importantly, can understand them,” Larson said.
Councilmember says drivers fear crashing into kids
The presence of motorized scooters and bikes has grown to the point where it has to be addressed, Knappen said.
“The truth is, in our ward, these things have proliferated greatly. They’re everywhere, and I’ve had a number of people mention it to me, mostly out of the fear they’re going to hit a kid. And there might be only three incidents so far, but one incident could end up being really bad,” he said.
Several councilmembers, including Angela Stiens, Tony Gillette and Jeanie Murphy, mentioned seeing motorized scooters speeding through their neighborhoods.
While Gillette compared the rising trend of motorized scooters to when skateboards caught on in the 1970s, he said he prefers people be educated about them, rather than outlawing them.
“I think education and keeping it from being an illegal activity and just getting the parents and the students to understand the rules of the road … is just the best process to go,” Gillette said.
What’s next
The council committee unanimously asked city staff to explore modifying the city ordinance for motorized skateboards to include motorized scooters, as well as require riders under the age of 18 to wear a helmet, which the city council will vote on at a later, unspecified date.
While it also asked city staff to look into reducing the speed limit for scooters, they said Shawnee police don’t have the equipment needed to check the speed on them.
More scooter and e-bike news: Blue Valley puts new rules on scooters and motorized bikes after incidents at schools
