What you need to know about legal electric scooters
MADISON - Electric scooters will soon be on your highways and city streets under a new law legalizing the vehicles.
Here’s what you need to know before hopping on one or sharing the roadway:
Treat scooters like a bicycle
The law treats scooters like other electric mobility devices — similar to bicycles. The scooters must be under 100 pounds and have handlebars and an electric motor.
When powered by the motor, the scooters must not exceed a speed of 20 mph on a paved level surface. And they are exempt from vehicle registration by the Department of Transportation.
Operators of electric scooters must obey the rules of the road. Scooters can be ridden on the shoulder of roadways, unless otherwise prohibited by a municipality. A person making a turn on the scooter should give the appropriate hand and arm signals, but they do not have to do so if the hand is needed to complete the turn.
The scooters are also treated similar to pedestrians in some areas. They are sometimes allowed on sidewalks and bicycle paths and must yield to signaled walk signs at crosswalks.
But in Milwaukee, riding a scooter on a sidewalk is banned. Some Milwaukee residents complained the scooters cluttered the streets when they showed up unannounced in the city last summer.
Renting a scooter is just a smartphone away
To use the scooters, just take out your smartphone. Customers generally use an app that pinpoints the locations of available scooters throughout a city.
Once people find a scooter, they can scan a code on the scooter through the app to activate it. Each ride from Bird Rides scooters — one of the major scooter companies — costs $1 to unlock, plus a per-minute charge of about 15 cents.
When you’re done? Just leave it. (Again, really)
Bird Rides suggest that when a ride is over, the scooter should be parked near a bike rack but there’s not a specific place to return the scooter.
Pick up your smartphone and use the scooter provider’s app to signal you’re finished riding.
Where can I find the scooters?
In Milwaukee, scooter companies like Bird Rides, Lime, Spin, VeoRide and Lyft are eyeing the city for customers.
Download the providers’ apps and when the scooters arrive, you’ll know where they’re waiting for you.