- Denver is cracking down on electric scooters after a spate of accidents.
- All scooters will need to automatically deactivate when on a sidewalk.
- Riders also need to pass a test before using a scooter for the first time.
Electric scooters have become a go-to option for navigating busy city streets, promising speed and convenience without the hassle of parking or gas. But while they’ve changed the way millions of people move around urban areas, they’ve also turned sidewalks into obstacle courses, and in some cases, landing zones for unexpected ER visits. Now, one U.S. city is drawing a line.
Denver, Colorado, is introducing new rules to control the use of scooters on its streets, and in particular, its sidewalks. The legislation, which passed unanimously, demands all scooters come fitted with technology that can identify when the device is not on a road or cycle lane, and cut all power.
Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure claims it has already started to test sidewalk detection technology, FOX31 Denver reports, but hasn’t revealed exactly how the systems work or how effective they are. They’d need to have some kind of GPS positioning component, but marking out the areas where it’s okay to scoot from those that are no-go zones sounds like a big task…