Brookville Police Chief Doug Jerome relates to council his thoughts on how to best resolve the safety concerns with kids riding electric scooters on downtown sidewalks.
Terry Baver | The Register-Herald
BROOKVILLE — Police chief Doug Jerome suggested a public relations approach is the best way to resolve concerns about kids riding electric scooters on the sidewalks in front of downtown businesses.
Jerome made the suggestion after two Market Street business owners voiced their concerns at the Aug. 20 council meeting with the possibility of customers leaving downtown businesses being struck and possibly hurt by someone riding an electric scooter on the sidewalk.
“Our code doesn’t say the word scooters, but it does have a term that we feel would be a scooter,” Jerome said.
“In the Ohio Revised Code and the city ordinances, there’s a term called low-speed micromobility device that is defined as a device weighing less than 100 pounds, has handlebars and is propelled by an electric motor or human power and has an attainable speed on a paved level surface of not more than 20 mph when propelled by an electric motor,” Jerome advised.
Jerome said he believes employing a public service campaign is a better idea than adding scooters to an existing ordinance prohibiting skateboarding and rollerblading in the downtown area that was passed by council in 2004.
“They (council) set regulations for a community district stating people can’t skateboard or rollerblade in this district, but here’s the very broad thing about this,” Jerome said.
“The area covered under the ordinance consists of Market Street from Wolf Creek to Jefferson streets and Hay Avenue from Wolf Creek to Jefferson streets,” Jerome continued.
Jerome noted the entire residential areas on Hay Avenue and Main Street are included in the ordinance.
“The ordinance also covers all alleys in addition to Walnut, Mulberry and Sycamore streets from Hay Avenue to Main Street,” Jerome said.
“You’re not only including the businesses, you are including residential areas where you are saying to kids you can’t operate vehicles in this area,” Jerome said.
Jerome said he believes “before you start making laws to restrict things in certain areas we try to do a public service campaign.”
Jerome suggested placing scooter and bicycle safety information on Facebook.
“We can place some information on Facebook and parents would see it and talk to their children about safety in the downtown area,” Jerome said.
Jerome also said the school resource officer could present a program to elementary students to promote safety.
“In my opinion, if we did this, I believe it could make a positive impact without changing the law,” Jerome said.
Fire chief Ron Fletcher suggested downtown business owners could help prevent an accident between a patron and a person riding a scooter by cautioning the patron before he/she leaves the business.
“If the true concern is we don’t want to see a patron in a store step outside the business and be struck and injured by this, maybe the owners of the stores can take a pro-active approach and warn their customers it is a busy sidewalk and warn those customers to step out with caution and be aware what’s right and left of them before stepping out onto the sidewalk,” Fletcher said.
Jerome agreed with Fletcher’s suggestion.
Jerome also reiterated “social media is the way to resolve the issue.”
“If you can do something in a positive manner versus a negative manner, I think it goes further,” Jerome said.
“If that doesn’t work, we’ll go back to the drawing table,” Jerome said.
According to Ohio Revised Code, “ a low-speed micromobility device may be operated on the public streets, highways, sidewalks, and shared-use paths, and may be operated on any portions of roadways set aside for the exclusive use of bicycles.”
The ORC states “no operator of a low-speed micromobility device shall do any of the following:
• fail to yield the right-of-way to all pedestrians at all times.
• fail to give an audible signal before overtaking and passing a pedestrian.
The ORC further states an operator of a micromobility device cannot operate the device at night unless the device or its operator is equipped with or wearing both of the following:
• a lamp pointing to the front that emits a white light visible from a distance of not less than 500 feet.
• a red reflector facing the rear that is visible from all distances from 100 feet to 600 feet when directly in front of lawful lower beams of head lamps on a motor vehicle.
In addition to electric scooters, a micromobility device includes:
• manual scooters
• manual bicycles
• electric-assist bicycles (E-bikes)
• electric skateboards (E-skateboards)
• electric unicycles
• motor assisted scooters
• hoverboards
Reach Terry Baver at [email protected].
