Motorized Scooters in the City of Durham
Let’s talk about motorized scooters. I’m really excited, but I have some questions.

tl;dr: Scooters are cheap, fun, fast and can reduce car trips. Those are good things. But they can also block sidewalks and curb cuts for pedestrians and disabled folks. There’s also some evidence that they can be poorly maintained by the vendors and dangerous to ride as a result. Those are bad things. And by the way, as they’re currently configured, these scooters probably aren’t street legal in NC. That reality poses additional safety and enforcement problems. Regardless, scooter vendors will probably start operating in Durham sooner or later, so we can enact regulations now before that happens or we can enact regulations later after that happens. So I’d love to hear your thoughts on all this!
The full post is below, with links to additional information in the comments. I hope everyone will comment and let me know what you think.
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The city administration has proposed a new “Shared Active Transportation” ordinance that would cover the city of Durham’s current dockless bikeshare program as well as allow new types of shared active transportation devices such as electric assist bikes and motorized scooters. The link in the main body of this post is to the current draft of that proposed ordinance (though there are a handful of changes that will be forthcoming from staff over the next week).
While the proposed ordinance includes some welcome tweaks to how the current dockless bikeshare program works, the biggest change that would come from passing the ordinance would be allowing vendors to apply for permits to distribute motorized scooters within the city of Durham to be rented by the general public. These scooters work very much like the current dockless bikeshare program — users download the vendor’s app to their mobile phone and use the app to pay a certain amount of money to ride the device. (Note: the proposed ordinance also includes strengthened measures to provide access to these types of devices to folks who don’t have smartphones and/or credit cards.)
The benefits of the widespread availability of these motorized scooters are considerable. Over 20% of all car trips in the United States are less than 2 miles, and replacing some reasonable percentage of those automobile trips with motorized scooter trips would yield considerable benefits in reduced emissions and reduced traffic congestion. These scooters can also help solve the “last mile” problem that impedes many folks from using public transportation. Plus they look like they’re super-fun to use!
But there are also drawbacks. If our experience with dockless bikeshare is any guide, the introduction of motorized scooters in the city of Durham will see a profusion of these devices on our sidewalks, especially downtown (though this overcrowding has lessened with time with the bikes). Blocking sidewalks poses risks for pedestrians, and blocking curb cuts is especially bad for disabled folks. Yes, of course, motor vehicles also sometimes block our sidewalks and clog up our common spaces (and I’m grateful to those of you who send me photos of this happening!), but that doesn’t mean we can ignore bikes and (eventually) scooters when they’re doing it.
In addition to the “clutter” problem associated with these shared access transportation devices, there is also the very real problem of safety. A number of folks have sent me a recent Washington Post article about the rise of serious injuries linked to riding motorized scooters in cities across the country, and we should all acknowledge that this is a significant concern. And yes, of course, motor vehicles are more dangerous than scootersand linked to a much higher number of injuries, but this is still a factor to consider as we think about allowing these scooters in Durham.
Finally, there’s state law, under which these motorized scooters are defined as mopeds. Clearly the folks who drafted and passed this law were not thinking of a motorized scooter when they did so, but our city attorney’s office has determined that these devices fall within the statutory definition of a moped (and for what it’s worth, I’ve reviewed the statute and I agree). There are certain equipment requirements that mopeds must have to be ridden on public streets, including a light for night riding, a rear mirror, inflatable tires and some form of registration (though not necessarily a license plate). Based on my research, no motorized scooter in use in the two cities where they are currently available (Charlotte and Raleigh) meets all of these requirements.
This is more than administrative nitpicking. First and foremost, equipment requirements like these (registration aside) exist to ensure that vehicles that travel on our roads are safe. Riding in the street beside cars and trucks that weigh thousands of pounds is dangerous enough for mopeds that do have all of this equipment installed. Take away these safety measures and motorized scooters are much more dangerous to their riders — a fact that pedestrians and cyclists already know all too well. These dangers are especially acute in a city like Durham, which does not have the kind of robust network of bike lanes that a community of our size should expect despite the progress we’ve made in recent years. (PS: we’re working on it.)
But there’s also an enforcement problem related to these equipment and registration requirements that we can’t ignore. If the city of Durham grants vendors a permit to operate in Durham, the city administration has told us that they do not have the ability to inspect motorized scooters for compliance with state law before they are placed on the streets and offered for rent to the general public. Vendors must affirm that their scooters comply with state law when applying for a permit, but given what we know about the devices they have on the ground in other North Carolina cities, motorized scooters in Durham will not comply with state law.
But when a Durham resident sees one of these scooters on the sidewalk, they would be justified in believing that the city of Durham has approved that scooter for use in Durham. Imagine their surprise when notified by a law enforcement officer that in fact the scooter they’re riding is missing required safety equipment and registration — and that they can be given a traffic ticket for that reason! Even if law enforcement officers use their discretion in simply warning scooter riders that these scooters are not street legal, how does that business model even work? Are vendors really comfortable marketing these devices in a state where they can’t legally be ridden on the road? And do we really want to put our law enforcement officers in a position to have to decide which of these legal requirements they will enforce? If we say we don’t want these safety equipment requirements enforced by local law enforcement officers (a decision the city council can’t make, by the way), what about mandatory helmet rules? Or the requirement that riders have to be at least 16 years old? Or the prohibition against riding motorized scooters on sidewalks?
As you can see, there are lots of questions here and no easy answers.
Having said all that, here’s the twist: the scooter vendors can decide to drop these motorized scooters on our sidewalks anytime they choose. That’s what happened in Raleigh, and that city is now trying to work through all of these issues while the scooters are in use on their streets and sidewalks. A few weeks ago, one of these vendors blanketed UNC Chapel Hill with motorized scooters overnight, only to have the university prevail upon them to remove the scooters while they negotiated some kind of use agreement that would allow them to return. Charlotte experienced a similar situation some months ago and is now in the midst of a pilot program in which motorized scooters are only approved for use on sidewalks, which is not something I would support here in Durham.
The city administration has proposed this draft ordinance as a way to create in advance a regulatory framework within which these scooter vendors can operate. That is a laudable goal, and whatever legitimate concerns I may have about the operation of these motorized scooters in our city, I have to acknowledge that our staff has done a great job of trying to get us ready for what’s coming.
I hope it’s clear to everyone who’s made it this far in this post that I’m deeply conflicted about how to proceed here. I think motorized scooters look like a lot of fun, and I think they can be a real benefit to certain kinds of users in the city of Durham. But we can’t turn a blind eye to the myriad problems that come along with the fun and convenience of motorized scooters. And looming over all of these considerations is the reality that, sooner or later, these vendors will begin operating here whether or not we’ve created this kind of regulatory framework.
If you’ve taken the time to read this post (or even if you’ve just read the tl;dr at the top), I hope you’ll share your thoughts with me in the comments below. You can also email me at charlie.reece@durhamnc.gov. This proposed ordinance is currently on the agenda for our regular city council meeting on Monday, September 17th, and you can also come to that meeting and sign up to address the council about the draft ordinance.
