The Nashville Mayor has decided to banish electric scooters after the first scooter-related death. Mayor David Briley notified seven scooter companies operating in Nashville he was ending the pilot project and banning electric scooters from the streets, according to a letter he posted to Twitter Friday.
Today, I notified Nashville’s seven scooter companies of my decision to end the pilot period and ban e-scooters from our streets. We have seen the public safety and accessibility costs that these devices inflict, and it is not fair to our residents for this to continue. pic.twitter.com/1IBmZRsRgF
— Mayor David Briley (@MayorBriley) June 21, 2019
“We have seen the public safety and accessibility costs that these devices inflict, and it is not fair to our residents for this to continue,” Briley writes. “If these devices return in the future, it will be after a public process, on our terms, with strict oversight for numbers, safety, and accessibility.”
Briley had considered banning the scooters a month ago, according to theTennessean. But it wasn’t until Nashville experienced its first scooter-related death that the mayor formally announced his plan to remove scooters from the city. Brady Gaulke, 26, was struck by a vehicle and killed while riding a scooter in May. Police found that Gaulke had more than twice the legal limit of alcohol in his system and was responsible for the crash. Our article about one year of electric scooters in Indianapolis references that 21% of injured bicyclists admitted to consuming alcohol before riding, compared to 51% of injured scooter riders.
Nashville has been a hotbed for scooter sharing, with seven companies and as many as 4,000 scooters on the streets. Briley, in consultation with the Nashville city council, plans to allow one or two companies to eventually return and put smaller fleets of scooters back on the streets. Companies would compete for the limited slots through a process overseen by the city’s Transportation Licensing Commission, according to theTennessean.
At Tabor Law Firm we recognize the specific risks these electric scooters pose for riders and pedestrians in Indiana. If you or a loved one have been injured due to an electric scooter crash contact the experienced attorneys at Tabor Law Firm today.
