Electric scooter rentals: What to know before you take a ride

Yuma City Council adopts updated rules for use of mobility devices

Just in time for rental electric scooters to hit the streets of Yuma, the council updated the city code to address gaps relating to the use of electric scooters and other mobility devices.

The city also urged residents and visitors to be aware of the applicable laws prior to using these scooters.

The council on Feb. 17 unanimously adopted an ordinance with updated regulations on the operation of bicycles, electric bicycles, electric miniature scooters, electric skateboards, motorized play vehicles and similar devices.

Since these transportation devices present some operational issues requiring specific regulations, staff presented to council a complete replacement of Title 21, Chapter 213 of the city code.

Bird, the company that rents the scooters, initially planned to make its Yuma debut early this month but agreed to hold off until the city updated its rules on scooter use.

Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Bird plans to start with 50 to 100 scooters and might eventually have 150 devices in Yuma.

To begin with, the rentable electric scooters will be limited to sections of northern Yuma, including

downtown (Interstate 8 to Avenue B, from the Colorado River to 8th Street). The scooters are equipped with GPS devices, and Bird fleet managers will retrieve and redistribute them to the appropriate locations.

To rent a scooter, the rider can find the closest device by checking the map in the Bird app. Scooters can be reserved up to 30 minutes in advance.

To start a ride, the rider scans the scooter’s QR code with the app, hits the throttle on the right to go and pulls the brakes to slow.

The city noted that riders of electric scooters will be expected to obey all traffic laws and regulations as well as exercise caution when operating. Here’s what to know if you decide to ride:

WHO CAN RIDE

Riders must meet the age requirement determined by the vendor. Most companies renting electric scooters require riders to be 18 years of age or older.

WHERE TO RIDE

At this time, the use of rentable electric scooters will be limited to sections of northern Yuma, including downtown (Interstate 8 to Avenue B, from the Colorado River to 8th Street).

Electric scooters are allowed on sidewalks, multiuse paths, and streets where the speed limit is not greater than 35 mph.

When riding on a sidewalk or multi-use path, riders should ride to the right, share the area with others, and always yield to pedestrians.

Electric scooters will not be allowed in any area marked as a “No Ride” zone. When entering a “No Ride” zone, riders should dismount and walk their scooter through those areas.

WHERE TO PARK

Scooters must be parked in an upright position and in a bicycle rack or electric scooter rack/area when available.

Scooters can be parked on a sidewalk parallel to the street; however, riders should keep the walkway clear for others.

Electric scooters cannot be parked on private property.

SAFETY

Riders operating electric scooters at night must have the proper safety equipment.

As with operating any other moving vehicle, it is illegal to ride an electric scooter while under the influence of any substance or substances as defined by Arizona law.

Carter G. Woodson, (Dec. 19, 1875 – April 3, 1950) was an American historian, author, journalist and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. He’s credited as the father of Black History Month. It was started in

1915 as Negro History Week and February was chosen as the birth months of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. That year, 1915, is the 50th Anniversary of the passage of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery in the United States.

Woodson’s purpose was to make known the unknown African American contributions to American society, deliberately ignored in the general history. Our time is not the only time or the first time of “cancelled culture.” I gave a presentation to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in 2012 for Black History Month and chose to highlight African-American contributions to science and technology. Among the many I could have cited:

• Lewis Latimer (1818-1897). Latimer was an African-American inventor, electrical pioneer, and a son of fugitive slaves. With no access to formal education, Latimer taught himself mechanical drawing while in the Union Navy, and eventually became a chief draftsman, patent expert, and inventor. He was the only African American member of Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park engineering laboratory. He contributed to evolutions in the light bulb and improvements to the telephone.

• Garrett Morgan (1877–1963): After witnessing a road accident, Morgan worked on a device to keep cars, buggies, and pedestrians from colliding. In 1923 he patented the traffic signal.

• Benjamin Banneker (1731 –

1806): Banneker was a free African American astronomer, mathematician, surveyor, almanac author and farmer. The son of former slaves, at 15 he took over the family farm and invented an irrigation system to control water flow to the crops from nearby springs. In the 1750s he borrowed a pocket watch, took it apart, studied it and created a fully functioning clock made entirely out of wood. It would keep on ticking for decades. Borrowing books on mathematics and astronomy he accurately predicted a solar eclipse in 1789. Impressed by his abilities, Thomas Jefferson added Banneker to be part of a surveying team to lay out the new Washington D.C. When the lead architect quit, taking the plans with him, Banneker recreated the plans from memory and the task was completed.

• George Crum (1824-1914): Inventor of the potato chip. In the summer of 1853, a patron who ordered a plate of French fried potatoes sent them back to Crum’s kitchen because he felt they were too thick and soft. Crum sliced a new batch of potatoes as thin as possible, and then fried them until they were hard and crunchy. Then he added a generous heaping of salt. To Crum’s surprise the dish turned out to be a hit and a new snack was born.

• Charles Henry Turner (18671923): He became a noted authority on the behavior of insects. He was the first researcher to prove in 1907 that insects could hear.

• Percy L. Julian (1899-1975): Earned a master’s degree from Harvard and a PHD from the University of Vienna. His most famous achievement is his synthesis of cortisone, used to treat arthritis and other inflammatory diseases.

• Bessie Coleman, aviator (18921926): As a teen she wanted to amount to something. She worked in laundries but longed for more. Then she fell in love with the new idea of flight. With no white pilots willing to train her and no African American pilots available she was encouraged to go to France. Coleman left for France late in 1920. There she completed flight training at the best school in Paris. She traveled Europe, gaining further flying experience so that she could perform in air shows. She became the first licensed female aviator in America. She created a school for aviators of any race, and she would appear before audiences in churches, schools, and theaters to spark the interest of African Americans in the new, expanding technology of flight. In 1926, she died in a flight accident at the age of 34.

• NASA’s “Hidden Figures:” The human computers of Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan helped the United States in the Space Race.

We have too few heroes. It’s a blood sport to set them up and tear them down. We don’t need to replace some with others. We need to add more. Celebrate more. Know more. Learning from and unveiling those many “hidden figures.” Repairing those gaps in our history, without punching any more holes in our history.