Milwaukee is no stranger to dangerous streets and reckless driving; it is unfortunately not uncommon to see cars ripping down streets, red lights being run, broken pieces of bumpers littering intersections and makeshift street memorials for victims. While the city and county work to tackle these issues, another menace to transportation safety has emerged, but not on city streets, rather on the sidewalks bordering them.
On June 16, a Milwaukee pedestrian was struck by a Lime scooter rider on the sidewalk of the 1000 block of North Martin Luther King Drive. The pedestrian—identified as Milwaukee nightclub owner Dave Wolz—was taken to the hospital after suffering multiple broken ribs, a broken ankle and a spinal fracture. Though assuredly not the first Lime scooter crash on the sidewalk, this event has become a flashpoint for pedestrian safety as e-scooter use has become increasingly a part of city life. Following the incident, numerous news stories were run and Alderman Bob Bauman—whose district the incident occurred in—released a statement reflecting his disappointment and frustration with continuous illegal sidewalk riding of e-scooters.
Actions by the City Council
After the incident both Bauman and Alderman Peter Burgelis (11th district) introduced measures to increase fines for sidewalk riding as a preventative and punitive measure. Bauman proposed an increase of the current maximum fine from $20 to $200 and Burgelis to $1,000. Neither of these measures, however, can be passed without also raising the fine for cycling on the sidewalk to the same level.
Additionally, the route of fines raises the question of enforcement. Currently the city has not been enforcing sidewalk riding rules and Lime, though boasting of AI technology it utilizes to help identify and discourage sidewalk riding, does not seem to be effectively enforcing it given the recent crash and scores of anecdotal evidence via resident complaints…