By Pepper Fisher

PORT ANGELES – The Port Angeles City Council has adopted some ordinance changes to make the Bird motorized scooter pilot program go a little more smoothly.

In a lengthy discussion at Tuesday night’s council meeting, councilors considered a proposal to eliminate the current age limit for operating motorized scooters of 16-and-over. While they acknowledged that Bird Rides has its own rule that says their customers must be 18 years old, they questioned whether we should still be restricting a younger person from riding their own scooter to school or elsewhere?

Also considered was the question of where scooters can be ridden. Current code says they can only be used on streets with a speed limit of 25 mph or less. City staff recommended that restriction be raised to 30 mph, but even that would eliminate using Front and First Streets. They both have 35 mph speed limits, but they also have designated bike lanes.

Finally, Councilor Lyndsey Schromen-Wawren proposed dropping altogether the city ordinance that requires wearing a helmet to ride, basically, anything with wheels.

Schromen-Wawren’s helmet proposal was not popular, but councilors agreed they would revisit the discussion after doing some recommended reading of statistics on the subject.

The other two proposals, to amend the current code eliminating the 16-year-old age limit, and to allow the operation of scooters on streets whose speed limits are above 30mph when there is a designated bicycle lane, were passed unanimously.

For the record, City Manager Nathan West mentioned that the Bird company still had not found a local fleet manager, a necessary step before the pilot program can begin.

(Bird Rides photo)