Seattle’s first attempt at incorporating electrical scooters and e-bikes into its transportation system has failed. It’s time to alter course.
In 2020, the Seattle City Council approved the Seattle Division of Transportation to contract with corporations that hire scooters and e-bikes. To get that approval, SDOT made specific commitments:
● Scooters wouldn’t be pushed on sidewalks (besides the place sidewalks are a part of a related bike community, as on movable bridges).
● Scooters could be parked solely in designated areas in order that they’d not hinder sidewalks.
● Explicit areas could be electronically “geofenced” in order that riders couldn’t finish their journeys there.
● Scooters and the apps used to entry scooters would supply rider training.
● SDOT would monitor the place scooters are parked and superb riders and distributors for improper parking.
● The highest pace of scooters could be 15 miles per hour.
● Helmet use could be incentivized.
● Not more than 6,000 scooters and e-bikes could be deployed within the metropolis.
SDOT has not satisfactorily met a single considered one of these commitments:
● Scooters are sometimes ridden on sidewalks, which has significantly degraded the standard of life in downtown Seattle, the College District, Capitol Hill and different neighborhoods. Riders cross pedestrians at excessive speeds on sidewalks, argue with walkers who ask them to journey in bike lanes or the road, and add a stage of mayhem to city life that astonishes and dismays residents and guests.
● Scooters left on sidewalks, in bike lanes and on streets impede the motion of pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers. Improperly parked scooters additionally violate town’s obligation to take care of accessible sidewalks beneath the People with Disabilities Act, leaving wheelchair customers and the vision-impaired to navigate round deserted automobiles.
● Geofenced areas are sparse and remoted and don’t lengthen to specific components of sidewalks.
● The protection directions offered by apps and on scooters are insufficient and simple to disregard.
● SDOT has devoted little effort to monitoring the place scooters are parked and has not issued significant fines to both riders or distributors for improper parking.
● Scooters can journey at speeds effectively in extra of 15 miles per hour.
● Regardless of the danger of head accidents from falls, only a few scooter riders put on helmets, despite the fact that Seattle regulation requires it. (King County repealed its necessary helmet regulation for bike riders in 2022, but the city’s helmet law for scooters still applies.)
● Seattle now has greater than 15,000 scooters and e-bikes, together with greater than 12,000 stand-up and seated scooters — nearly double the fleet dimension that was promised and excess of comparably sized cities like Denver, Portland or San Francisco.
Past the consternation they trigger, scooters are actually answerable for a whole bunch of accidents per 12 months in Seattle. In accordance with analysis performed by a College of Washington group, greater than 400 individuals have been handled at UW emergency rooms and clinics for accidents incurred in scooter accidents from 2021 via the tip of 2024. A lot of the accidents (87%) occurred from riders falling off scooters, and most (greater than 95%) have been sustained by riders of rental scooters. These numbers don’t embrace individuals seen in different emergency rooms and clinics in Seattle or those that didn’t search medical care for his or her accidents.
Accidents included head and neck trauma, concussions, damaged bones, sprains, lacerations and misplaced tooth. “As suppliers, we’re all seeing these accidents repeatedly,” mentioned Dr. Austin Gaal, attending oral and maxillofacial surgeon at Harborview Medical Heart, who additionally has been amassing knowledge on scooter crashes. Accidents are notably quite a few at sure instances, he informed me, “like after Mariner video games.”
Scooters are additionally answerable for at the least 4 deaths in Seattle over the previous 4 years, together with deadly crashes in Belltown and West Seattle.
Legal responsibility for accidents and deaths brought on by scooter driving is a rising subject. As reported by former Washington State Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald within the weblog Submit Alley, Lime not too long ago agreed to pay $2.5 million to a rider and his spouse who sued town in 2023 for accidents brought on by driving a Lime scooter. Future accidents and deaths will inevitably generate far more authorized motion.
In accordance with SDOT’s Vision Zero Action Plan, “the one acceptable variety of critical accidents and lives misplaced on our streets is zero.” But town continues to permit scooter applications which are inflicting — and can proceed to trigger — widespread and devastating accidents in addition to lack of life.
Different cities have taken steps to regulate the usage of scooters. In a 2023 referendum in Paris, 90% of voters authorized a ban on scooters. London, Rome, Melbourne, Barcelona, Atlanta, San Antonio, San Diego and plenty of different cities have restricted the place and when scooters can be utilized.
Among the many different restrictions cities have imposed on scooters are licensing necessities, built-in pace regulators, gadgets to forestall tandem driving, necessary parking places, the banning of headphones and restrictions on privately owned scooters. Not considered one of these measures has been instituted and enforced in Seattle.
Seattle does have a regulation towards driving scooters on sidewalks, together with the newer, seated, pedalless scooters. However sidewalk riders both don’t know concerning the regulation or ignore it, and Seattle police at the moment make no effort to implement it.
Town has made substantial investments in bike lanes and is unlikely to ban rental e-bikes and seated scooters. However the continued use of stand-up scooters in Seattle can’t be justified. A lot of the chaos going down on sidewalks and in bike lanes comes from stand-up scooters. Their small, onerous tires make for hazardous driving on uneven surfaces. Falls from stand-up scooters may be notably harmful. Seated scooters and e-bikes present comparable ranges of mobility.
Some individuals will proceed to journey seated scooters and e-bikes on sidewalks, and these automobiles additionally pose a threat of accidents to customers and pedestrians. However seated scooters and bikes have a number of benefits over stand-up scooters. Folks appear much less more likely to journey them on sidewalks, at the least for now. Higher signage, training and enforcement of guidelines might encourage riders to make use of bike lanes. And the usage of bike lanes could also be extra interesting as soon as stand-up scooters are gone.
Folks stay in walkable neighborhoods as a result of they wish to stroll locations. It’s unfair and poor public coverage to power pedestrians to share sidewalks with doubtlessly harmful motorized automobiles.
