Changes to the laws around the use of electric scooters, including the introduction of a minimum age limit, will come into force next Tuesday, 17 June.
The law reform also allows police to fine a person operating any form of transport, including a bicycle, if they are found to be intoxicated and likely to present a danger to others.
Shit 😄
This is not exactly unheard of and is in line with many other locales. For instance, I once watched a guy get arrested for DUI while operating one of those Rascal style mobility scooters, because he was drunk as a skunk and also riding it up the shoulder of a public road.
All that aside, I disagree with the current apparent fascination of limiting the mobility of minors with criteria that are based only on the amount of effort expended on the part of the rider. Nobody in the western world bats an eye if kids ride a pedal powered bicycle anywhere. But as soon as you strap a motor do it, ye gods forbid, everybody loses their fucking minds.
Nah fluff that, if you’re allowed to walk drunk then a mobility aid you need to get anywhere shouldn’t count as a DUI. “Shoulder of a public road”? How many places in the US don’t have a footpath?
Plenty, granted. But in this case there was a footpath (or rather, a sidewalk as we style them here) which the guy could have used but he didn’t.
Last year in Finland there was almost 600 under 16 year olds that got into accident with e-scooters and the average age of people hospitalized due to these accidents was 12.
Granted. But my thought is, do you have the same numbers for bicycles + skateboards + rollerblades?
We didn’t even have electric bicycles or e-scooters when I was a kid but I saw tons of my peers get just as fucked up on BMX bikes and skateboards, usually also in incidents involving car traffic.
Over the past three years, the average has been 18 deaths and 470 injuries per year. In 2023, there were 29 seriously injured. In addition, there were 266 more people severely injured who, for some reason, aren’t included in these stats - I assume this also refers to the year 2023.
Of the fatal accidents, about half were collisions between a bicycle and a car, and half of those involved people over the age of 64. Among injured cyclists, one in five was under 15 years old.
I’ve heard of people getting DUIs and speeding tickets on bicycles before.
In California, our speeding laws apply equally to all forms of transport, but quite frankly, a speeding ticket on an acoustic bicycle would likely be worn as a badge of honor lol
For DUI though, California distinguishes motor vehicle DUI from “BUI”, a bicycle misdemeanor with a max fine of $250 and no jail time. They do this in recognition that no drunk bicyclist could ever instigate the carnage and death that a motor vehicle can.
It’s unclear to me (for lack of looking it up) whether drunk e-scooter riding would also fall under the BUI law or if it would be under the catch-all dangerous driving offense. But in no circumstances could it be DUI, which is for motor vehicles only.
Technically it’s a CUI: Cycling Under Influence. BUI is used for boating.
Interesting question regarding scooters though. VC 21200.5 says “bicycle” but I’m not a lawyer. I’m sure a cop with a vendetta would cite things like missing reflectors rather than understand legal nuances.
Good.
What is the problem if they are wearing helmets?
Instantaneous power, unregulated market (motors 250+ W readily available), small wheels, uncapped speed, underdeveloped brain.
As an adult, it was scary to ride 250 W e-scooter for the first time.I had this discussion with a work colleage about this. I can go as fast as a decent e-bike on a decent regular bike for short bursts. I can ride a regular pushbike for maybe 500m like a NYC bike messenger on meth before my pace starts to flag, maybe 2000m before I’m too gassed to do anything but cruise. The Ebike can do it for 20 times that.
