GREG MORRIS: Indy scooter invasion not for everyone

I have some good news for those people who, like me, are not enamored with the scooter invasion downtown. Cold weather and, I hope, a lot of snow will arrive soon; that should reduce the insanity on downtown sidewalks and streets. I hate snow and cold weather, but if it means fewer scooters speeding along sidewalks and crosswalks, I’ll learn to tolerate it.

Rather than riding a scooter, I’ve got an idea for a healthier alternative to get around downtown. It’s a bit radical and some might even say old-fashioned. Get your lazy butt off the scooter and walk! Get a Fitbit, Apple watch or the like and track your exercise.

Try to achieve a minimum of 10,000 steps a day. By doing so, you’ll be healthier and won’t be buzzing pedestrians on the sidewalk or putting yourself in harm’s way if you’re riding on the street.

If you haven’t noticed, most scooter riders do not follow the rules. Just to make sure I’m not being too critical of our fun-loving speedsters, I watched the cute video IMPD posted on social media @IMPDnews in which a friendly and scooter-accommodating police officer informs us of the rules.

First, when parking the scooter, you need to leave a minimum of 4 feet clear on the sidewalk to accommodate pedestrian traffic. As an example, the video shows four scooters parked neatly in a row up against a building. They are perfectly lined up and nicely spaced apart. Of course, I’ve never passed a row of scooters parked in this way. Instead, people are parking them the way they found them—in disarray, which junks up the area.

Moving on now with this informative video. The officer points out that, when you actually get on the scooter, you can’t ride it on the sidewalk or the Cultural Trail or any of the greenways. You need to ride out in the street or in the bike lanes. Few are following that rule. I’ve observed a large number of scooter riders moving at high speed on the sidewalks. That seems to be the most common route taken, with the Cultural Trail next in popularity.

But who wants to ride those dinky little things on the street? I wouldn’t want to be alongside cars and trucks weighing several tons right next to me. It is highly recommended, but not required, that you wear a helmet. I’ve seen very few helmets being worn in the entire time of the scooter invasion. This seems like a minimum safety precaution these daredevils should take.

What other rules aren’t being followed? If you actually follow the rule of riding your scooter on the street, you need to abide by all traffic laws, and that means going with the flow of traffic, not against it. You can’t go the wrong way on a one-way street. The few scooters I see on the street break these laws all day every day.

Now, I like fun as much as anybody and I know riding those scooters downtown is fun. But, all snarkiness aside, I’m extremely concerned about the well-being and safety of everyone involved—the scooter riders, pedestrians and even motorists. Careless riders can be seriously injured or worse. If a car accidently hits and kills a scooter rider, many lives change that day. It’s a tragedy for all. And this is a real possibility.

I sure don’t want IMPD spending a lot of time babysitting scooter riders to ensure they follow the safety rules. They have many more important tasks at hand. And I don’t want to see anyone get seriously hurt. So, if we have to live with this scooter experiment for now, please be careful out there.•

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Morris is publisher of IBJ. His column appears every other week. To comment on this column, send email to gmorris@ibj.com.