Monday, Oct. 20

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Businesses want scooters
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[OCT. 20, 2003]  Two local businessmen made an appeal before the Lincoln City Council at last Tuesday's meeting. Paul Smith from T-N-T Truck and Trailer Repair Inc. and Roger Matson from Action Rental would like to see the city move on creating an ordinance that permits electric battery-powered motor scooters on city streets.

This was Smith's second visit to the council chamber. When he came last time there were a number of concerns raised by council members. One was about the noise the scooters make and another about their speed and safety in normal neighborhood traffic. [See Sept. 10 article in LDN.]

So, this time Smith came equipped to address some of those concerns. He brought with him a beautiful burgundy scooter. The scooter's maximum speed is 20 mph. He started it up to demonstrate the volume of noise they create and their visibility. He demonstrated turn signals, headlights and taillights when the room lights were dimmed. The noise was nominal and the visibility deemed good by those in the chamber.

Smith is a dealer and distributor for the scooters. He suggests that the city would benefit several ways if they would pass an ordinance allowing the use of these vehicles in the city. The sale of scooters would support the development of local businesses and increase sales tax revenue. He also suggests that the city could sell stickers that would serve not only as vehicle owner identification but bring the city some extra revenue too.

Matson would like to be a rental outlet for the scooters. He's looking to stock merchandise that will interest his customers and will help maintain or expand his business. People who cannot afford to buy scooters could rent them, and it would get people out of the house to have some fun, he said. He is looking into the insurance coverage his business would need to do this.

State law leaves the regulations of such vehicles up to communities. City Attorney Bill Bates said that within our city code scooters are not legal on streets. The city would need to be careful about the wording of any ordinance written that would approve them for use on the city streets.

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Bates responded to a suggestion that they could be regulated to ride in limited locations, such as parks or neighborhoods, or maybe restricted from certain streets. "You're either going to let them ride them in the city or you're not," he said. You might be able to say they can only be ridden in parks. But it would be very difficult to say they can be ridden on one street and not on another.

Verl Prather suggested that these vehicles are not much different from the three-wheel handicapped vehicles that are being seen in use around town. "We've got to be real careful about how we handle this," he said. "We don't want to send the wrong message to them [the handicapped] by what we decide with this."

Details of accident liability led most of the concerns expressed by the aldermen. Dave Armbrust questioned who would be financially liable in case of an accident. Other motorized vehicles on the streets are insured.

Patrick Madigan said that property owner insurance would cover some situations. If the Illinois Department of Transportation would be involved, they would come back to the city for liability. He will be looking into what insurance is already available to scooter riders.

Smith said that he would like to see the city pass an ordinance permitting their use around Lincoln soon. He knows there are a lot of families that would like to have a scooter under their Christmas tree this year.

[Jan Youngquist]

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