Opinion: US DOT needs to establish regulations for Electric Scooters

Ira Michael Blonder
Sep 7, 2018 · 2 min read

In a front page story titled “Scooter use is rising in major cities. So are trips to the emergency room” the Washington Post reported on something bound to happen sooner than later: people getting hurt riding, or colliding with a piece of metal with merely two little wheels capable of traveling at up to 15 mph.

In a consistent application of the disruptive start up notion “Ready/Fire/Aim”, new, well-funded businesses including “Lime” & “Bird” just dumped lots and lots of electric scooters onto the streets of big US cities: Santa Monica California, San Francisco, you name it USA.

City governments, in typical US “our arms are open, come on in” fashion initially permitted the onslaught despite a regulatory vacuum on how, if at all, these “vehicles” can be operated safely by lots and lots of people at the same time. There wasn’t even the typical finger pointing about just which US government agency would be responsible for producing the need regs.

The Washington Post story documents the danger of this approach. Anyone following transportation “innovation” will likely note a consistency posing clear dangers to the public: a very similar approach has been taken to accomodate testing of somewhat autonomous vehicles (I am using the word “somewhat” since the technology is still a work in progress).

There may be a few hundred autonomous vehicles on the road and under testing across the US. But there could be tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of electric scooters on US roads shortly.

The US cities moving quickly to award citywide operating licenses have moved far too quickly, putting the potential of new licensing fees ahead of the need and urgency to provide a method (assuming one exists) of operating these vehicles safely on public roads at rush hour (the most likely time for accidents to occur) and throughout the day.

Where is the US Federal Department of Transportation in all of this activity?

VCs: Next time you take a look at a new twist on disruptive entrepeneurship, please consider public safety before you open the cash coffers.

Ira Michael Blonder

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32 years non stop experience marketing & selling IT products to enterprise business. MA in English. Technical Writer. MARCOM & PR writer. Product Mktng.