People have already told Blair Tyler that his X-Treme Skooter store in Bel Air Town Center will be out of business soon because of a proposed “scooter” ban, he said.
But will it?
Tyler says people, even police officers, don?t understand the differences among a “motor scooter,” “scooter,” “powerboard” and “go-ped” ? and his business is taking a hit because of it.
Police Chief Leo Matrangola recently introduced legislation to the town commission to ban vehicles with a “small, close-to-the-ground platform, with handlebars and … a motor” from public streets and sidewalks, Deputy Chief Armand Dupre said. Matrangola did not return calls for comment.
“Our chief is mistakenly lumping motor scooters in with scooters and making a case that there needs to be additional municipal legislation,” Tyler wrote in an e-mail. “In actuality, our chief should spend more time enforcing the laws that already exist as they apply to these products and less time thinking he is paid to create legislation.”
A motor scooter is like a mini-motorcycle and requires a license to operate, but a scooter is a
children?s toy, according to state law.
Tyler said last week near his store, an officer stopped someone for riding a motor scooter along a sidewalk but had to ask Tyler what the vehicle was.
While riding the motor scooter on the sidewalk was illegal, riding it on the street would not have been.
“I deal with this every week,” Tyler said. “The ambiguity of the law is such that they don?t understand what they?re enforcing.”
Dupre said the legislation would localize state and county laws that already ban the vehicles from public streets and sidewalks, so a less severe and more appropriate punishment could be given out.
The law would protect children who weave around traffic and parked cars, and would help silence the “constant, high-pitched whine” from motors that annoys neighbors, Dupre said.
The town commission was to hear from the public on the issue Monday night. Dupre said police have received a “fair” amount of complaints.
Tyler said Matrangola is “giving all scooters a black eye.”
