To: Kevin McKeown, City Council
Santa Monica Scooter Restrictions
To ban motorized scooters from the beach path, where they are doubling traffic, disobeying the rules of the road, and causing serious injury to other citizens and themselves. To restrict motorized scooters from the streets and sidewalks of Santa Monica, and ticketing as an effective deterrent to enforce these prohibitions.
Why is this important?
My 7-year-old son was hit by a motorized scooter traveling at 20 mph heading south in the northbound lane on the beach path. The pole of the scooter struck him in the mouth, breaking his two front teeth, slicing his lip open, and loosening six other permanent teeth, which he may lose completely. Our beach path has become unsafe, drivers are having to go to great lengths to avoid striking scooters disobeying the rules of the road, pedestrians are being struck on the sidewalks, and the scooters piling up on the sidewalks are hazards in our public walkways as well as infringing on private property. We must take measures, as other cities have done, to prevent the dangers that motorized scooters pose.