Council's public safety committee Monday evening approved a version of bill no. 7956, allowing the use of scooters and adding requirements and prohibitions for their use.
City code currently prohibits the use of motorized scooters except for government use or along a designated parade route by a registered parade participant.
Councilman Emmett Pepper, lead sponsor of the bill, said the code prohibiting motorized scooters is not being enforced and scooters are becoming more popular.
"People are riding electric scooters, and it's becoming more popular, and it's currently illegal," Pepper said. "I think we just need to modernize the code to make something that's popular and widely acceptable and to be authorized and to have to also have some safety precautions put in there and give some guidance to the populace to operate them safely."
Council members Chad Robinson, Bobby Reishman, Caitlin Cook, Bruce King, Brent Burton and Joseph Jenkins are also sponsors of the bill.
Authorizing motorized scooters could also allow scooter rental businesses, like one that opened last year in St. Albans, to open in Charleston. A scooter rental business would require more discussion, Pepper said, "but it has to be legal before they'll even want to talk to us."
The bill was approved by council's Planning, Streets and Traffic Committee late last month. That committee took out a provision that would have allowed the use of the scooters on city sidewalks.
Under a version of the bill approved by council's Public Safety Committee Monday, motorized scooters would be prohibited on sidewalks and on any roadway, path or other surface that's closed to bicycle traffic.
The bill would also require motorized scooters operators to be at least 16 years old and would limit the speed of scooters on roads to 30 miles per hour.
Scooters in use at night must be equipped a series of lights and reflectors visible from certain distances.
It would also be illegal to leave a motorized scooter on its side on a sidewalk or in another position where there's not an adequate path for pedestrian traffic. Operating a motorized scooter while impaired would also be illegal.
Pepper said the bill will be helpful, especially for people visiting the city.
"Those little vehicles, which are getting really popular, are the perfect way to get from a hotel downtown to look at the Capitol, and there's going to be a lot of people who are going to want to do that but maybe not want to deal with a cab or an Uber or something, but hey, if there's a scooter right there, maybe they'll do a little tour of the town," Pepper said. "... So I think it'll improve everybody's lives a little bit."
The bill will next go to the full city council for a vote.
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