Electric scooters and e-bikes can be a lot of fun or a terrible menace, depending on who you ask, and communities across Iowa are working to better regulate the speedy two-wheelers.
Estherville City Administrator Penny Clayton says the city council voted this week to put new restrictions on what it calls micro-mobility devices.
“We took the city’s existing bicycle regulations and added the other types of micro-mobility devices that people are using these days,” Clayton says. “That would include things like electric scooters and e-bikes among some other items.”
The ordinance says riders of these devices need to operate them in a safe and responsible manner, following all traffic codes, like stopping at stop signs, and giving the right of way to pedestrians.
“They need to not operate in a reckless manner, so stunting, speeding, zigzagging, just generally making a nuisance of themselves,” she says, “they need to not do that.”
Those who violate the ordinance could face fines or impounding of the device for between seven and 30 days.
Several Iowa cities have adopted similar ordinances to regulate the use of e-bikes and scooters. Marion, for example, has set a 10 mile-per-hour speed limit for sidewalks.
(Ed Funston, KILR, Estherville)