Prince George
County, VA

Heights clears path for possibility of e-scooters


While no vendor has approached the city yet, council wants to be ready if and when it happens

COLONIAL HEIGHTS — E-Scooters may or may not be coming to Colonial Heights any time soon, but City Council has passed legislation to make sure laws are in place in the event that they do.

E-Scooters have become a point of contention around the state after the Virginia General Assembly passed a bill in 2019 which allows localities to regulate companies that provide motorized scooters and skateboards.

Currently six companies — Lime, Lyft, Skip, Bolt, Jump, and Bird — offer a pay-per-use service for scooters in the localities where they operate. Typically users can access, find and pay for these scooters with a mobile app. Localities have been recognizing the need to legislate these personal vehicles before streets become a rodeo.

Both Richmond and Norfolk impounded 500 scooters each from California-based Bird after the startup dumped their fleet of scooters without permission. The city of Alexandria also had hundreds of complaints during its pilot program for the devices, and Charlottesville residents worried about operator habits during its pilot program.

“These things have been leased by companies and they’ve just been left all over the place and turned down,” said Colonial Heights City Attorney Hugh P. Fisher III. “I think council wanted to avoid that happening here, putting some restraints in place, saying if you have one of these things, you have to park it in a certain way and keep it neat.”

Though Colonial Heights is yet to be approached by one of these companies, these situations in other cities were enough that council wanted to have rules in place, should the devices ever make their way to the city.

“Safety certainly is a consideration in terms of pedestrians because it applies not just to electric scooters, it applies to electric bikes and skateboards,” Fisher said.

Colonial Heights’ defines e-scooters or “motorized scooters” as a vehicle powered in whole, or in part by an electric motor, weighing less than 100 pounds with a maximum speed limit of 20 mph. They are prohibited from sidewalks, and operators must follow regular roadway traffic laws.

One resident expressed concerns that his personal travel device used for medical reasons would be impacted by the ordinance, disallowing him from using a sidewalk.

Fisher said that such transportation means would not be affected by the ordinance.

Colonial Heights would allow riders 14 years of age or older. Anyone younger would have to be accompanied by someone at least 18 years of age or older.

In the event that a company does come calling to put its scooters in the city, they would have to file an application with the police chief. From there, the chief of police would have the final say on any additional laws needed to govern e-scooters.

’The chief of police is the one who ultimately has to approve it,” Fisher said. “He’s going to draw up the application, he’s going to come up with the questions He’s the one that’s going to approve it because he’s going to enforce it.”

By Sean Jones
Progress-Index
Sean Jones can be reached at 804-722-5172 or sjones@progress-index.com.