The City Council’s committee on Police and Fire is holding a public hearing Thursday to discuss the popularity of motorized scooters, including issues of safety, legality, noise pollution and whether they’re being used to run drugs in some neighborhoods.
Ald. Emma Mitts (37th), who co-authored the resolution calling for the scooter hearings along with Ald. Ray Suarez (31st), has heard pleas from her constituents to ban the scooters, as well as a plea from her 16-year-old son to buy him one.
“My son asked me about buying him one the morning I introduced it into the City Council,” Mitts said. “I’m like ‘oh no.’ I made him an unhappy camper then.”
Mitts’ biggest concern was that the scooters are becoming an easier way for drug dealers in her neighborhood to move their product in a more covert fashion.
“I could see very well from the ones riding on my block that they had to be using those scooters to distribute drugs more so than just riding one,” she said.
Although the motorized scooters are not banned and can be used on private property, they aren’t allowed on the public way in Chicago. They’re only prohibited, however, because the Secretary of State’s office won’t issue registration or licenses for them.
To address this gray area, Ald. Billy Ocasio (26th) proposed an ordinance during the City Council meeting earlier this month that would outright ban from the public way motor-driven cycles, defined as “every motorcycle and every motor scooter with less than 150 [ccs].”
The ordinance makes exceptions for disabled people who use motorized wheelchairs.
“We saw a lot of kids, 6, 7, 8 years old, riding these things,” Ocasio said. “If you take a look at the new, modern versions of these things, they go up to 30 m.p.h., and yet children were riding these things on sidewalks and alleys.”
Although Ocasio would like the state to intervene, Secretary of State spokeswoman Beth Kaufman says it’s not their problem.
“We have had questions from other municipalities on where we stand on this, and those municipalities have passed ordinances on where you can ride these and where you cannot,” she said. “It’s really up to the cities.”
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Comparing the rides
Electric minis
Also known as:
Go-peds,
weed-whackers,
scooters
Engine size:
250 watts and up
Speed: 10-20 m.p.h.
Maximum load: 200 lbs.
Price range: $100 and up
Gas minis
Also known as:
Skimmer-bikes, go-peds, scooters
Engine size: 25-50 ccs
Speed: 20-25 m.p.h.
Maximum load: 200 lbs.
Price range: $250 and up
Regular scooters
Also known
as: Vespas, Sprees, etc.
Engine size: 50 ccs and up
Speed: 35 m.p.h. and up
Maximum load: 475 lbs. (rated for two riders)
Price range: $1,500 and up
Images from Electricscooters.com and Vespa.com
