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Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Ind. Law - Mo-peds, Scooters and Golf Carts

Yesterday the ILB carried a report on "lax mo-ped laws." And the ILB has had a number of entries on the use of golf carts on city streets - see this entry from July 5, and these from June 9th and 8th, for starts.

Now add this on motor scooters, from a story by Chelsea Schneider of the Evansville Courier& Press reporting on a meeting of Evansville's traveling city hall Tuesday evening:

Terry McCrarey, president of the Diamond-Stringtown Neighborhood Association, coordinated the meeting with Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel and brought a concern of his own.

He recently bought a solar-powered scooter from California to beat the high gas prices. But a new city ordinance makes his scooter illegal even if he wears a helmet, McCrarey said.

The ordinance bans scooters that travel under 25 mph from city streets and sidewalks. Scooters that go 25 mph or more are legal if a person has a driver's license with a motorcycle endorsement and wears a helmet, Evansville police officer Steve Shemwell said. The ban mainly targets children who use scooters on the streets, because it's a safety issue.

McCrarey's scooter goes about15 mph. He sees the ordinance as the city banning some forms of alternative-power transportation that are easier on his pocketbook.

"When I used the scooter, I didn't have to pay $3 a gallon at all because it's powered by sunlight," McCrarey said.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 12, 2006 07:48 AM
Posted to Indiana Law