SEQUIM — A proposed ordinance to regulate the use of motorized foot scooters could also set law for bicycle riders, requiring them to wear helmets while on city streets.
City Council members in September gave preliminary approval to an ordinance which would prohibit anyone younger than 16 from operating the popular two-wheeled, combustible-engine vehicles on public roads and would restrict their usage to streets with speed limits of 25 mph or lower.
Expressing safety concerns, they asked City Attorney Craig Ritchie to add language requiring scooter operators to wear bicycle helmets.
Ritchie did that, inserting verbiage that would extend the required use of helmets to anyone riding a bicycle on public streets.
His purpose, he said, was to demonstrate how helmet regulations would apply to the use of scooters, since much of the wording of helmet ordinances deals with the legal rationale for requiring them as well as the specific characteristics of which helmets are approved as safe.
Ordinance option
Ritchie felt the City Council members should have the option of considering a combined ordinance in case they wanted to adopt a helmet law for bicycle riders in the future.
“Instead of changing every word and say it only applies to scooters, I thought, “Wait a minute — why couldn’t this apply to bicycles as well?” he said.
But council members — who received a draft of Ritchie’s amended ordinance several days prior to their meeting Monday night when the ordinance was again discussed — apparently failed to notice the new language.
“I didn’t see anything in there applying to bicycles,” Mayor Walt Schubert said Tuesday.
The draft ordinance contains several strikeouts signifying amended language. Council members would not be expected to formally vote on it until it reaches a final stage, Ritchie said.
Port Angeles proposal
Sequim is not alone in considering scooter safety provisions.
The Port Angeles City Council will take up the issue when it meets Monday night, Police Chief Tom Riepe said Tuesday.
That draft is similar to the one Sequim is considering.
But Port Angeles already has an ordinance in effect requiring bicyclists to wear helmets.
That 10-year-old ordinance also makes it a civil offense for parents or legal guardians to knowingly allow riders younger than 16 to ride bicycles without wearing a helmet.
Neither Port Townsend nor Forks has an ordinance in place requiring bicycle riders to use helmets.
Clallam County also does not require bicycle riders to wear helmets on public roads.
