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First let me say, that I always wear a helmet and so does my grandson when we ride my scooter. I am NEVER talking on my phone, or texting while I am driving which is safer than most drivers inside city limits today. Why should we have to pay for insurance to ride a scooter? That makes no sense at all. Wearing a helmet is good common sense when dealing with preoccupied vehicle drivers. The scooter has a weight limit as far as passengers go to get performance. That choice should be mine not the cities. The speed limit in town is 35 mph in most areas. Due to lack of City Patrols there is a lot of speeding that takes places. Scooters do slow the traffic down to the speed limit and make people pay attention in most cases. Is it fair and legal of the city to impose this? I don't think so. The city has far bigger issues to deal with than our scooters. It is the reckless city drivers.
This issue here is if these scooters are classified as more of a motorcycle or more of a bicycle. Since they are motorized, then they resemble a motorcycle. However, since their speeds are low (like a bicycle), then they take on that aspect. My concern is where does this stop from Big Brother? Bicycles requiring insurance and a license? Could it go farther? The problem here is, things like this and the idiotic smoking laws that have bombarded this country happen a little at a time, where many of us don't notice the freedoms that are being stripped from us. No one cares when a law is made, a freedom is stripped from someone else. However, when people crack the door a little at a time-slowly, eventually that door will be wide open. I for one can understand only one part of this proposition and that is the insurance issue. If you're going to ride in traffic with others and put yourself in the path of injuring others or another vehicle, then I get that, but then I'll reiterate, why not bicycles? In my experience, many of the people who complain about scooters are motorcycle riders who just deem it as "unfair". It's kind of like what Charlie Sheen said on Ferris Buehler's Day Off, "Why do you care what your brother does". Speaking of people (NOT all of them) who pays no attention to the laws of the road it's motorcyclists. How many times have I seen a group of Harleys pull out of a gas station or wherever and 30 of them will stop traffic because they ALL seem to think they are ONE vehicle. I have never seen a group of people who think they own the road like people on Harleys who NEVER seem to pay attention to anyone else, BUT they are always complaining about cars needing to watch out for them. It's truly a pot=kettle kind of thing. They sometimes go between traffic, although that's illegal in Missouri. And please don't even get me started on the complete morons who do wheelies on their crotch-rockets while going way beyond the speed limit on Kansas or Battlefield. I think that these propositions should be looked at very carefully and NOT taken lightly. Sure, on the surface it's 'only' scooters we're talking about, but there's more to it than that in the long run. City leaders and others in higher positions like to use the words "require", "policy", "ban" (among others) a little too often for my taste. I'll also make one last small note. When I stop paying taxes for our roads, then my riding on them will be a privilege that I will take under consideration. Otherwise, I view it as a right that I possess. I also view walking on a sidewalk a "right" because I help pay for them being built and kept up. Also, if you want me to get technical about the word "privilege", if you look the word up on Dictionary.com there are seven different meanings. Five of those seven has the word "right" in the description. They are much the same.
I have always wondered why they could use the road and not pay for insurance. They can get hurt just as bad at 35 mph as any other cycle rider so a helmet should be required. I have seen many running around that I am sure have no valid license and I am sure a lot of them are not old enough to even be driving one.
I ride a motorcycle and have for over 30 years and I have always had to have insurance and wear a helmet and they are not any better me or any other bike rider, so let them pay the price just like any other motorcycle rider.
Any and all vehicles operated on the street should be licensed and insured. Driving is a "privilege", not a "right".