Regulate scooters.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Picture this: It's a stunningly beautiful weekend morning on a bike path along the Willamette River. You pause from a bike ride or jog to soak up the glorious sights and sounds - the river riffling through the the shallows below, the blue heron standing motionless in midstream, the kids romping in the grass nearby.

Then you hear it - the nasty, nasal whine of a gas-powered scooter that grows louder and more irritating by the second. An indifferent, unhelmeted rider whizzes past on the narrow pathway as if he's in the fast-lane of a mini-interstate.

For many Eugene bikers, walkers and runners, this has become a disturbingly common experience on the city's bike paths. Eugene has rules that govern the use of motor-assisted scooters, but those rules are outdated, confusing and inadequate, especially in light of the recent boom in the sales of inexpensive scooters.

The Eugene City Council should move swiftly to enact new regulations that will limit or even ban the use of motor-assisted scooters on the city's 32-miles of bike paths, particularly on nearly one-third of them that meander through parks.

The council made a good start in that direction Monday night when it directed city staff to craft a menu of possible regulations that address the presence of scooters, as well as their often-excessive speeds and noise levels, on both bike paths and lanes throughout the city.

Although some may have been sorely tempted, councilors wisely rejected Betty Taylor's proposal for an immediate and outright ban on all motor-assisted scooters from bike paths and lanes. Before approving new regulations, councilors should first listen to the concerns and ideas of city residents, including scooter enthusiasts who will no doubt argue that increased regulation is preferable to a sweeping ban.

In considering ordinances, councilors should make a distinction between gas-powered scooters, which flat out don't belong on any path designed for use by pedestrians and bicyclists, and the much quieter, slower-paced electric scooters, most of which can't travel much more than the 15-m.p.h. speed limit that exists on city trails. The council should also take care to protect the needs of people with disabilities who rely on motorized scooters and wheelchairs for transportation and may have no other practical means of accessing city's parks.

As Register-Guard reporter Ed Russo noted in a Monday story, a number of states and communities have begun tackling the scooter problem. Seattle, for example, is seriously considering banning scooters from parks and multiuse trails. In Pennsylvania, Iowa and Nebraska, scooters are already banned from public streets and paths. Last month, a bill requiring licenses or permits for scooter drivers and bans on modifying exhausts on gas-powered models passed the California Assembly.

The Eugene City Council has taken a positive first step toward regulating the use of scooters on bike paths. It remains to be seen what the city's best options are, but one thing is certain - the current mix of motor-assisted scooters and bike paths isn't working.