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Tiny scooters - big issues

Scooters are cute and functional.

These little vehicles can transport people and belongings - albeit not many - great distances on very little fuel. They can navigate small areas and can be stored in a fraction of the space of a traditional car.

Best of all, they can be parked nearly anywhere so they have a positive impact on the municipal parking challenges most big cities face.

Look around Paris and you’ll see a dozen scooters parked on the corner of a traffic island or tucked neatly out of the way on a busy sidewalk. Glance at major cities like New York, Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco and you’ll see the same thing. Scooters gathered in their own ‘hives’ - helping reduce carbon footprints while affording each city the ability to cater to more people without enduring additional car traffic and parking issues.

Scooter Utopia, right. Pretty much, until now.

What’s changed is the mentality of big-city governments and an environment of trying economic times. Seriously.

Legislators have decided in many big cities that scooters are using the roads and should start to be treated like every other motor vehicle. In theory it sounds fair but in practice it falls short on multiple levels.

My specific beef is with Massachusetts and the city of Boston. They have new scooter legislation that takes effect in a few days, the gist of which is that all scooter-like vehicles (motorized bikes, mopeds and scooters of all sizes) must be licensed, plated and parked according to the same regulations of a car. If there was ever an apples to oranges comparison, putting scooters and cars in the same category is it.

Here are a few scooters - all of these come under the new law. Ponder for a second how much space these two-wheeled vehicles really take up.

Let’s compare cars and scooters briefly.

Road Use - Cars have four tires and weigh roughly ten times as much as a scooter, maybe more. A car understandably has more physical impact on the infrastructure than a scooter. Legislators want to ignore the differences in carbon impact and treat all vehicles similarly. It’s a money grab basically.

Registration - For years, mopeds and small scooters have been allowed to operate with just a little sticker. This little sticker costs users $20 a year. It is how these small vehicles are registered and tracked. Sadly, my sources at the registry of motor vehicles confessed that the registration lists for these ’stickered’ vehicles was mostly kept manually and never entered into the state’s computers. Where any parking enforcement person can immediately bring up info on your car by using the plate, the moped/scooter registration system let the majority of two-wheelers slip through the cracks. With a comprehensive registration system, the state will now be able to track scooters better. This is actually pretty smart. While it adds some complexity to owning and operating a scooter, it ensures that riders are licensed and insured. It also helps track stolen scoots because everything will now have a plate in the computerized database. Sure, it means more money, but this isn’t solely a money grab.

Parking - This is the biggest issue. Have you ever parked in Boston? Was it fun? I regularly ride my scooter to Boston from the South Shore. I park on the sidewalk and lock or alarm my scooter. It takes up about four feet of space and leaves a spot free for a car on the street. The new legislation requires that all of these two-wheelers must now be parked in a legal space. That means - and I did an informal count the other day on just one block - that the five scooters parked on a typical city block will now be occupying parking spaces. Which in turn means there are five fewer spaces for cars. That’s bad enough, but from a scooterist’s standpoint the legislation puts my life at risk, too. Seriously. Imagine that you’re late for an appointment and come into the city in your car. You see what you think is an open space but then realize that a tiny, 200lb scooter is hogging it. You fume and drive down the block. The scenario replays itself a few more times. Tiny scooter in spot made for a car. Aren’t you going to be a little angry at scooters the next time you see them driving on the road in front or behind you? Sure you are. Will this make you run them off the road? Probably not, but it might affect your outlook enough that you won’t be as courteous to them as you would be to other vehicles. Also, on the streets without meters, where can I stick my parking receipt so someone won’t just take it? And how can I keep people from moving or even stealing my scooter (see next section)?

Personal Property - From riding my scooter all over the region I have experienced the complete lack of respect others have for personal property. People bump the car in front of them and behind them when parking. They don’t park within marked lines.

http://bowlofcheese.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07...

And they are now piloting vehicles that make our antiquated infrastructure incapable of handling their girth. What do you think happens to scooters that are parked in spots designed for cars? They get smashed. People whip into spots without looking and invariably slam into a tiny scooter that they didn’t anticipate. Further, if they do see the scooter at the last minute, they stop their car and go move the scooter to the back or front of the space. Scooters only weigh a couple hundred pounds and can be easily rolled by one person. In fact, two people can steal a scooter in a matter of seconds just by picking it up and tossing it in the back of a truck. I think this scooter law is going to generate an entirely new type of parking rage because Joe and Josephine Six-Pack are not going to understand why a scooter has to take up a full spot.

What do you think of scooters? Should politicians have to find their own parking spots in the city for a week to see what it's really like?

As for me, I’ve got a few errands to run around town. I’m going to practice taking up a full space and see what sort of response I get. I’m even tempted to jet into Boston a little later and camp in various spots around the city to see how people feel when they can’t find a spot because my tiny scooter has taken it.

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Comments

You said: "My specific beef is with Massachusetts and the city of Boston. They have new scooter legislation that takes effect in a few days, the gist of which is that all scooter-like vehicles (motorized bikes, mopeds and scooters of all sizes) must be licensed, plated and parked according to the same regulations of a car. If there was ever an apples to oranges comparison, putting scooters and cars in the same category is it."

Wrong. The new law requres "scooters" that have power outputs above a certain point to be regulated like motorcycles, not cars.

Your "200 pound scooter" is less of a motorized bike than it is a malnourished motorcycle and should be subject to the same rules.

Solution? Get a bigger bike or a smaller moped. End of story.

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Mr. Saunders: could you please provide the specific language in the new scooter law statute to support your conclusion that"the new law requres 'scooters' that have power outputs above a certain point to be regulated like motorcycles, not cars."

Thanks,

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you say by a smaller scooter or a bigger scooter, since when did telling someone what size and shape of a vehicle is the solution...you have no business making suggestion in this forum if that is your solution!

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Mr. Saunders: Please provide the specific language in the new scooter law statute that supports your conclusion that "The new law requres 'scooters' that have power outputs above a certain point to be regulated like motorcycles, not cars."

Thanks

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they should also be registered, follow the rules of the road, etc; but riders often don't understand why they are being stopped and ticketed for violations. On the other hand, how many casual riders do the type of thing that make you want to yell from your car window, "That's how cyclists get killed?"

Same with scooters. It's one thing when you have people who treat it with understanding and respect but I'm seeing more and more idiots with a death wish. There is a piece of me that screams "evolution in action!" and another part that screams "you give the rest of us a bad rep."

If the City of Boston is serious about this, then they should create scooter areas the same way they have bike racks rather than force a scooter to take a full parking spot. So converting one parking space to a "scooter zone" - say in the middle of the block - then it should work much better and send a message to drivers: hey, maybe you want to think about different transportation.

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Technically, all the scooters affected by this (only those capable of 30+ mph) are currently classified as motorcycles and should be getting plates, registration, etc.

This just creates an intermediate category between little mopeds and full-blown motorcycles, which is totally sensible. Technically, everybody riding one of these could already be ticketed up the wazoo for failing to meet motorcycle standards.

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By the way, please share your scooter experiences - good and bad. I want to ensure that I'm not like the pols with my head in the sand when it comes to the glory of all things scooters.

Thanks!

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I saw the article yesterday, and my first response was, what is the dividing line between a scooter you can park on the sidewalk and a motorized two-wheeled vehicle that is too large for that?

It looks like the city is trying to define that line, and admittedly, it's tough. Yes, I think scooters should be able to park on a sidewalk like a bicycle, and Harley's should stay on the street. Somewhere in the middle, someone has to come up with a definition of "scooters too large to park on the sidewalk", and it ain't gonna be easy.

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I have vague indifference to the registration/tag requirement, to scooters -v- cars, to pretty much the whole subject, except to say this:

The Back Bay has become filthy with giant two-wheeled vehicles chained to light poles, trees, private fences and the like. So much so that walking Newbury and Boylston Streets is, in certain places, an obstacle course.

There is already a shortage of bicycle racks, and the recent popularity of scooters have contributed to the challenges pedestrians face in Boston——or at least it appears that way in my neighborhood.

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I rely on a scooter to commute to/from work each day. I live and work in two of the most impossible to park areas of the city (Beacon Hill and Harvard Square). If these idiots think I'm going to park my vehicle on the street without being able to secure it properly, they've got another thing coming. Last time I checked, no MA insurance provider will write for a scooter, and without that assurance, why would anyone risk having their mode of transportation lifted into a truck while they're at work or in their home?

There's a thread about these new laws at urbanscootin.com: http://www.urbanscootin.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=...

So far, the good news looks like the laws allow the RMV to put new rules into effect, but don't force them to. From what I've heard, the RMV has no immediate plans. That said, I have no idea if the parking regulations will be more strictly enforced as of Aug 1. As anecdotal evidence that they might not be, it is technically illegal in Cambridge to park a scooter on the sidewalk, but I have never witnessed a ticket being written. Whether or not that will change with pressure from the state is the real question.

Regardless of its enforcement, the idea of writing laws for an infrastructure that isn't ready to handle on-street scooter storage is just down right stupid, and is one more nail in the coffin of Massachusetts' alternate transportation world. Raise the MBTA fares, tax small two wheeled vehicles, write more tickets... let's face it, this state wants us in cars or it wants us off their grid.

I wrote the governor's office by going to this site: http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=gov3utilities&sid=Agov... to express my dissatisfaction with the new laws going into effect. I suggest others do the same.

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[...] it is technically illegal in Cambridge to park a scooter on the sidewalk, [...]

I didn't know that. If anyone wants to make a pass of a neighborhood to identify where some scooters park on the sidewalk at different times, there are telltale scrapes on the concrete.

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Cambridge: It's illegal because no gas-powered vehicle can park on the sidewalk, however their head of parking and other officials have a written policy of not enforcing this law against scooters (and similar), in order to encourage alternative transportation.

Brookline: Has a law against driving pretty much *anything* (and I mean down to wheelbarrows) on the sidewalk. I have never seen it enforced in any way at all...even parking in front of the police department and courthouse.

Boston: Legal as long as you don't chain to certain "street furniture" and do not block pedestrians.

Somerville: Pretty sure it's legal still because they don't have anything on the book that says it's not.

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When is the scooter rally at City Hall? I'd love to see hundreds of scooters on City Hall Plaza, which would also be an aesthetic improvement.

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I'm sorry but I am not sympathetic. At all.

While all these hipsters decry the oppression they are facing under what is common law among other states I want to draw attention to a group whose opinion on this matter has been utterly ignored: the disabled.

I am wheelchair bound (I'm old-school don't give me any of that PC bullshit). I cannot tell you how many times I have had to double-back for an entire block because of a scooter legally parked on the sidewalk has made it impossible for me to continue. The number of times I've been late for work, had to endure the honking and aggressive drivers on the streets to get around these damned things. This has been a huge problem in older neighborhoods like the South End, JP, and North End. All places I have lived and worked while living in Boston. What recourse has there been for me up until now?

Not a damned thing.

And I'm supposed to feel sorry for these people who park freely without a single thought about how it impacts other people's lives, property, and ability to freely move about the city? Please. They can suffer like everyone else and learn to park like adults.

I doubt these people would even be satisfied with a program like NYC implemented by adding large numbers of scooter-only parking areas. Six scooters can fit into an area the size of a normal parking place. In a city like Boston, this would do wonders to encourage their use as people seeing those empty spaces as they endlessly circle would be undoubtedly tempted.

Scooters are undoubtedly a fashionable, convenient, and efficient means of transit. But as they've grown in popularity they have caused great impact upon the disabled population of Boston. I am glad this is changing, because it has totally sucked for us.

Kids, this is the real world now.

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In the "real world" plenty of people who ride scooters -- myself included -- are so far from hipster that the thought alone is ludicrous.

If a moped is parked on the sidewalk in such a way that it keeps you from using the sidewalk, this alone is clearly illegal. Call the police. I can assure you that I go to absurd lengths to make sure my bike is out of the way, if only to prevent people from damaging it because they can't get around.

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The city hasn't addressed the issue of where MOTORCYCLES with PLATES are supposed to park, let alone scooters. This is one reason they end up on the sidewalk.

My husband doesn't like to meet me for lunch because there is no place in Boston to park his 150cc Piaggio (same size and body as the 50 cc btw, but plated). If he parks his motorbike in a car spot, it will either get knocked over, blocked in by some masshole jerk (and ticketed for that) OR TICKETED FOR ANGLE PARKING. Not to mention the stupidity of forcing a bike to use a regular parking spot, when six will fit in that space.

BTW, he's a 45 year old geek, not a "hipster". Too bad scooters on sidewalks seem to keep you from getting out more.

I sympathize with the mobility issues, and I would really like the scooters to stop hogging entire bike racks and forcing pedestrians of all kinds into the streets. However, Boston has to realize that the world changes from time to time and change accordingly. There is a need for motorbike parking, and they need to turn some of their spots in to multibike parking zones. Welcome to the 21st century.

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Hipsters ride fixies.

And...

Dorks ride scooters.

But thanks for playing.

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scooters over 50cc must be plated and insured. Anything *under* 50cc is illegal, and police have often gone on confiscation campaigns (although they don't seem to do that much anymore).

It will certainly be interesting to see how the parking legislation works out in Boston.

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Registration is definitely a good idea, as you've pointed out. The parking issue bares some consideration. I don't think it's necessarily safe for larger scooters to park on the sidewalk. Really, anything that is much more than a motorized bicycle does not belong on the sidewalk. That said, I completely agree that it is ridiculous to require scooters to park in car sized spots. The city should establish some scooter parking zones, just as it has been moving to standardize bike parking with racks and cages. That would be a fairly inexpensive and reasonable solution.

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Instead of complaining, lets do something!

Fill out these petitions
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/176/petition-for-pa...
http://devalpatrick.com/issue.php?issue_id=7958588
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/nonewMAscoot...

Please call the governor's office of constituent services at 617-725-4000 and say you are concerned.

Talking points:
1) It was hidden from us since January.
2) RMV doesn't know about it
3) Cities and Towns don't know aobut it
4) To stop scooters running red lights is not a valid concern, bicycles run red lights all the time, though that is illegal as well. Bicycle owners are not being forced to pay for insurance, registration, and yearly inspections.
5) This law is stifling alternative modes of transportation. These class of scooters get over 70 miles per gallon on average.

This law unfairly targets 50cc and smaller scooter owners, specifically. There are no public safety issues being solved by this.

other places:
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

*Contact Ann Dufresne: 617-973-7014
*Contact the Governor: http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=gov3utilities&sid=Agov...
*Also, find your elected officials and email them too!!
http://www.wheredoivotema.com/bal/myelectioninfo.php

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I think most rational people would disagree with this statement.

To say this very legitimate issue is not a vaild concern because bicyclists run red lights this all the time and are not stopped sounds like a "you're taking away our right to break the law without impunity" argument.

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To stop scooters running red lights is not a valid concern, bicycles run red lights all the time, though that is illegal as well. Bicycle owners are not being forced to pay for insurance, registration, and yearly inspections.

Wow, you're a special little snowflake. Boston Police don't catch a ton of murderers, though it's illegal. So let's legalize armed robbery, because dammit, those murders are getting away with...murder!

PS:Bicyclists travel more slowly and are not driving a MOTORIZED vehicle, powered by flammable liquid, which weighs several hundred pounds. They are far less dangerous to the public in the event of a collision.

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They see the joy of small vehicles, scooters, the efficiency and the fun, and they feel an evil need to screw it all up - that's the definition of a pol.

When the bike trails were opened in Northampton, they sought to exclude electrics - scooters, bikes, the head of the mass DEP was an evol women we had to take to court and get a sympathetic Fed involved.

The Feds, even under Bush, had decent laws passed for light electrics, which many states either ignored or just blew off.

There are now full sized electric scooter that are highway capable, but you better hope that your local DMV, insurer, and local constabulary are hip. Otherwise.....good, luck, so sad the stories.

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I see a lot of misinformation around. I have been following this pretty closely and discussing it with a scooter group here in Boston called "Twist'n'Go" for under-50cc scooters.

A few facts:
* Currently, 49cc and below scooters are classified as motorized bicycles if their maximum capable speed is 30 mph. If their maximum capable speed is above that or their engine size is above that, then they are technically motorcycles to the RMV. It is currently the responsibility of the registering person to declare to the RMV what they are driving is capable of. There is no "scooter" definition with the RMV (half of the problem).

* There are 50+ cc scooters which are capable of going faster than 30 mph but not capable of safe highway speeds and there are new classes of 3-wheeled vehicles and other types that have been invented that don't fit motorized bicycles at all, nor should they be given full motorcycle plates because of their low top speeds. Many of these either get lucky enough to fudge into motorcycle plates or can not get registered in this state at all.

* The parking laws don't allow anyone to street park non-parallel to the curb and don't allow a plated vehicle on the sidewalk.

* Motorized bicycles are treated like bicycles on the road. They can pass on the right within the lane and use bicycle lanes that are part of the street (but not ones detached from the street like hiking paths, etc).

* Plated vehicles differ from sticker-registered motorized bicycles in a LOT of ways: insurance, parking, registration cost, motorcycle licensing and classes, inspection, easier ticketing, and rules of the road to name a few.

So, now to the nitty gritty. This law was *primarily* concocted for those larger motor, low speed variants...like, say, a 100cc scooter. Too powerful to be a motorized bicycle (in terms of frame size it's identical to a 49cc model), too small to be safe on the highway. However, because many 49cc scooters these days can just barely reach above the 30 mph threshold, the RMV is threatening and moving towards forcing these models out of the motorized bicycle category (as it has tacitly and tactfully managed them even under current law to the benefit of everyone except the city coffers).

From the transcripts I have seen, no discussions in creating and passing these law changes took into account any of the aforementioned changes being forced on scooter owners to get plated OTHER than easier ticketing. I also saw no comments taken from any scooter owners who would be affected by this and no analysis indicating what a sudden influx of scooters forced to park on the street would do to this city's already fragile parking situation (not to mention the safety/security problems pointed out in the original write-up above).

My opinion:

This law was written by people who have no idea what they're doing and no knowledge of the specific conditions they are requiring to occur for purposes almost solely related to revenue generation. There is no insurance for a 49cc scooter; there is no safe way to park such a small vehicle in a metered street space; there is no secure way to leave a scooter on the street; there is no reason to move them off of the sidewalks when they are parked appropriately out of the way or at racks; there is no reason to require classes and motorcycle level training (manual foot shifting, etc) and a motorcycle license for a single cyclinder, variable speed automatic "twist-and-go" bike; there is NO reason the current sticker registration (which is done with vehicle-specific numbering) couldn't just be put into their registration system for easier ticketing of violations instead of going to plates; there is no value to a scooter other than maybe gas mileage if this goes into full effect for every scooter that can sometimes hit 37 mph (and trust me, in the winter I'm lucky if I can hit 30 mph most days). I have driven my 49cc Piaggio Fly for nearly every single day for a little more than a year and I have had very few problems with everyday Boston drivers, parking, or traffic (but one grand problem with a State cop with no knowledge of the scooter laws that I've extolled here before).

This law change will cause most people to shelve their scooters or ignore the changes. Taking scooters off the street while ironically putting the rest of them onto the street to compete for parking is antithetical to everything we're trying to change about our oil usage, climate improvement, traffic woes, parking woes, and more. We should be ENCOURAGING these sorts of transportation and not using antiquated mph guidelines to fuel anti-scooter money grabs and overwrought regulations on what is essentially a bicycle with a motor and a slightly larger body frame (seriously compare the size of some top-of-the-line mountain bike frames with full saddlebags and rear rack attached and they'll come close to rivaling the dimensions of a Vespa or a Ruckus).

Boston is consistently described as the most European city in the U.S. and yet most of Europe uses efficient mass transit and knows how to function without losing its collective shit when it comes to scooters and bicycles on their roadways. If the RMV and BTD crack down on these new changes, there are going to be a lot of problems for scooter owners AND car drivers alike; bigger problems than anything anyone here has mentioned about the way things are now.

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I had a 49cc scooter 15 years ago. I registered it with the RMV as a motorcycle. Since I had plates, I could get (motorcycle) insurance. I did all this so that if the scooter was stolen or vandalized, I was covered. Unfortunately, by putting plates on it, I was required by law to ride in traffic (not squeezing in-between stopped traffic like un-plated scooters do).

For the last few years I've had a "maxi-scooter". It's a 400cc motorcycle that is called a scooter because it's an automatic (CVT) transmission and has a step-through design. It's required by law to be plated, registered, insured, etc. While I wish I could legally 'lane split' like California allows, MA laws make that illegal.

What the little scooters need is their own vehicle classification. Make them a different plate type (scooter plate?), allow for insurance (I'm sure some owners would like that), and give them some rules for parking and driving. There isn't any city endorsed motorcycle parking I've seen, but scooter parking could be just that, for scooters.

If nothing else, the city/state cold make a few bucks and those who don't like them would be able to push for stricter rules.

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Will i still be able to use a low powered scooter without a license?

Also, this city really, really needs motorcycle/scooter parking. New York has a lot of it, and DC is putting it in. Of course, its been common in europe for decades. Maybe thered be less scooters on the sidewalk if there was a specific place on the road, with poles to lock to, to park. Doesnt even have to be free. In DC, theres an area with a bunch of meters very close together for motorbikes

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Plated or not, BTD Commissioner Tinlin has made it clear that there will be no crackdown on parking. If the scooter is not parked "obtrusively or blocking handicapped access" on the sidewalk, the BTD agents have "plenty else to do" than to ticket every scooter on the sidewalk.

So, parking becomes less of an issue. Now on to insurance, licensing, inspections...

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Kaz: please advise of the source of your comments about the commish. tx

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I quoted him directly from that link in my post above. Here it is in plaintext:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/200...

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