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Council measure would Motorized stand-up scooters, popular among children, are either a menace to pedestrians or the next great mode of transportation, depending on whom you talk to.
prohibit motorized
scooters on sidewalks
Bill supporters say the vehicles
are noisy and threaten pedestriansBy Gordon Y.K. Pang
gpang@starbulletin.comRegardless, the scooters could soon become banned from sidewalks, under a bill introduced this week by City Councilman Romy Cachola on behalf of the Honolulu Police Department.
The scooters already are barred from city streets, where only vehicles that can be licensed are allowed. But complaints from police and Oahu residents about safety and noise have prompted a bill to extend that prohibition to sidewalks, Cachola said.
"An accident is just waiting to happen," he said.
The bill would allow for scooters to be ridden in city parks. It actually even allows for them to be on sidewalks -- but only if their motors are turned off.
Count Ron Jones, president of the Moanalua Gardens Community Association, among the supporters of stricter scooter laws.
"Between the noise and the danger of the scooters, they scare the heck out of people," Jones said, noting that youths on scooters have been causing havoc on major thoroughfares in his community the past six to nine months.
Police Maj. Bryan Wauke said there is a documented case of a motorized-scooter accident where the rider was critically injured after being hit by a car. The victim, who later was released from the hospital, was riding on the street, he said.
Wauke said the complaints mainly involve youths. "I've personally witnessed children riding them and not knowing how to control them, running straight into traffic," he said.
Neighbors also complain about the noise many of the scooters generate, Wauke said.
Albert Young, whose Scooter Alley store sells both motorized and nonmotorized scooters, said he would not oppose some regulation. But barring them from sidewalks, he said, is going overboard.
"Like anything else, they can be dangerous," Young said. But motorized scooters are no more dangerous than bicycles or skateboards, he said.
Young said he has sold between 800 and 1,000 motorized scooters in about two years. They cost from $450 to about $700.
The electrically charged ones go about 10 mph, while gas-powered ones can move as fast as 18 to 20 mph, he said.
Young said he does not sell the scooters to anyone under 16, but acknowledges that many of them are purchased for children. "Parents buy them for their kids to keep them out of trouble," he said.
Many are going to youths using them as a legitimate form of transportation. "Kids are delivering papers on these things; they're making an honest living."
Andrew Jamila Jr. of Waimanalo was so impressed by the motorized scooters that he bought one for his 14-year-old son, Aaron, and one for himself.
"It's a bonding thing," Jamila said. The two ride only on weekends, and he stresses to his son that under no conditions does he ride around pedestrians.
"You don't want to ride around somebody while they're walking," he said. "And we ride on asphalt only -- we don't tear up grass or sidewalks with it."
Youths and parents are not the only ones buying up motorized scooters.
Fletcher Young -- no relation to Albert -- has been riding his electric scooter the five miles between Kapahulu and downtown every day since September.
Young, 32, is a student at Hawaii Pacific University who likes not needing to worry about parking or gasoline. "It's clean, it's quiet, there's no smell or anything," said the former Verizon customer representative.
Electric-powered scooters are quieter and less prone to souping up and should not be lumped in the same category as gas-powered ones, he said.
He can control the speed and direction of his scooter so that it is not a danger to pedestrians, Young said.
The scooters could be the daily commuting choice of more Oahu residents, but only if laws were changed to allow them in bike lanes and provided the bike lanes were improved, he said.
City & County of Honolulu