The Kenton County Mayors Group discussed the problem of electric scooter and bicycle safety at their meeting Saturday morning, following reports of concerns about the vehicles in several of the county’s cities.
The problem appeared to be especially pronounced in Edgewood; the city has even put out regular public warnings about ordinances mandating certain safety measures with the vehicles.
Kids are the ones who tend to use scooters and bicycles with electric motors, said Edgewood Mayor John Link. Link recounted a recent instance where a kid on an electric scooter had crashed into a car at a cross walk.
Fort Mitchell Mayor Jude Hehman, on the other hand, talked about his son, who uses a scooter. He said his son had shared people’s reactions to him using a scooter both on the road and on the side walk at a recent public safety meeting at the city.
“He said, ‘if I’m on a sidewalk, I get yelled at by people that are walking,‘ ” Hehman recounted, “and he said, ‘I get cussed at,’ and he said, ‘you have no business being on the sidewalk,’ and vice versa when he’s on the street.”
Conventional bicycles are usually mandated to stay on the road, rather than the sidewalk, but that didn’t mean people wouldn’t ride their bikes on the walkways, the attendees discussed. Ditto for electric scooters and the like.
The issue had become more salient as the vehicles have become more popular.
“The parents are buying them…,” Link said. “Kids aren’t buying them. Kids are just wanting them.”
Another problem brought up at the meeting was issue of improper care and damage of the lithium batteries used to power vehicles.
Independence Assistant Fire Chief Nick Russell discussed the problem and proper maintenance of the batteries. He also discussed how, as the batteries have become more prevalent, places around the country have begun implementing safety regulations to curtail the risk of lithium battery fires, such as requiring that all EV charging stations be above ground and out in the open, “instead of putting them in your garage, where it can cause a fire, because it’s so rapid. You can’t control it; you can’t put it out. It just takes time and water to cool it enough that it stops burning,” Russell said.
“Then everything that runs off, or all that water you put on there, is now hazardous run off,” said Kenton County Homeland Security Director Steve Hensley. “That has to be cleaned up to meet all the environmental standards.”
Tow yards have also become increasingly leery of taking in damaged batteries as well, Russell said, because of the fire risks involved.
Russell passed out a flyer with tips about battery best practices.
There already regulations in place for other kinds of vehicles, termed low-speed vehicles, such as golf carts and dirt bikes, which mandate things like registrations, insurance, lights and other measures that make centralized enforcement of safety measures more uniform. Scooters, however, aren’t currently categorized as such vehicles.
That wouldn’t happen without a statutory change, said Kenton County Clerk Gabe Summe.
“If they’re a low-speed vehicle, then you can be registered so you know who owns them,” Summe said. “They don’t necessarily have to be plated, unless they found they were on the road, like a golf cart or any other low-speed vehicle. But that would have to be a statutory change.”