Revisiting the “Scooter Issue”
Early-on, at the introduction of rental scooters to the South Park/Social District neighborhood in 2017, I wrote several letters to Christopher Antonelli, who was at the time the “get it done” person for CD14’s then Councilman Kevin de Leon. According to an internet search, Mr. Antonelli is currently the Director of Community Engagement for CD 2. I have attached below a copy of the second and final attempt in 2017 at “getting something done” on what has been recognized from the start as a near and present danger to anyone who walks on our neighborhood’s sidewalks:
Dear Mr. Antonelli:
Thank you for your response to our neighborhood’s concern about Scooter misuse and the installation of signs to keep Scooters off the Sidewalks.
Frankly, we are looking for a more specific response on this issue. We enact laws for the public good that must be enforced, and then we spend all our time arguing about how and who is to enforce them.
The South Park Neighborhood enjoys wide sidewalks that are in good repair and promote pedestrian use on a wide scale. Unfortunately, these sidewalks also provide wide open raceways for abusers on scooters and bicycles. Pedestrians are subjected daily to scooter riders blasting down sidewalks at full throttle with little care for what might get in their way. To make things worse, scooters and bicycles make little or no noise that can be a warning when they slip up behind you. Even when small children and dogs are well under control they can still dart out without warning. We have all personally witnessed near accidents between pedestrians and wheeled vehicle riders on South Park sidewalks. The impact of a 180-pound scooter or bicycle rider travelling at 15 miles an hour on a small child or a family pet cannot be trivialized.
We assume we are correct in understanding that your office is ultimately responsible for ensuring that public safety laws are adopted and enforced. By your vague non-response, you are telling us that you are abdicating this responsibility. While we are happy that you understand our safety concerns, understanding is not Enforcement, and it is not Protection. We will accept no less than positive action on this issue from you. Should you need additional input from us on doing your job of public advocacy, we might suggest that you might have a discussion with LAPD on this issue.
Several years ago, we were promised foot patrols on South Park Streets by LAPD officers. It would seem that two officers on foot working to control violations of scooter and bicycle traffic on South Park sidewalks and the writing of a few of those $200.00 tickets that have already been approved for issue in these instances would go a long way toward solving the problem. We would need this action between the hours of 9:00 am and 3:00 am as this problem gets worse in the afternoon and evening. After an initial heavy effort at enforcement, we imagine less attention would be needed. Once the word gets out that violations will not be tolerated, we should not need as much visible patrol effort. We believe that high visibility of officers on foot in the area will also go a long way toward cutting back on the growing theft and vandalism problem in the neighborhood.
We require an immediate response and plan from your offices as to how this problem will be controlled. Someone is going to get hurt if you continue to ignore it.
Sincerely,
John Nilsson, Ten50 Condominium Association
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Suffice it to say I never heard another word from Antonelli or De Leon for that matter on this issue. (My bad for lacking the will to press this further in 2017). Let make this perfectly clear: By City of LA Ordinance, no vehicle that has a motor is allowed to be ridden on the sidewalk. No scooters, no electric bikes. There is an established fine of over $200.00 for violation of this ordinance. Period.
It is now time to once again bring this issue to the attention of those people we are paying to exert control and remove this terrible safety issue from our neighborhood. I have recently spent time interviewing South Park residents on the street asking how they feel about the threat posed by scooters on the sidewalks. In addition, I recently interviewed several members of LAPD assigned to our neighborhood and asked them what they could do to solve this problem. Finally, I spoke to Dr. Luigi Di Stefano, head of the level 2 trauma emergency room of Dignity Health California Hospital, about the effects of scooter use on his emergency room traffic.
Every person I spoke with in my random on-the-street interview recognized and expressed frustration about the continuing threats from scooters on the sidewalks. All were very uncomfortable and, indeed, felt threatened by the presence of scooters flying at full speed down sidewalks – especially from behind - as it is usually impossible to hear them coming. Many people I interviewed recognized the danger from being hit by a scooter in our neighborhood far exceeds that of being hit by a car. Respondents wondered why scooters always sought the sidewalk instead of readily available bike lanes and why seemingly educated people cannot seem to read the many warnings of “No Riding on Sidewalks” posted on their scooters. What is obviously missing is any will by LAPD (there is no one else responsible for enforcing the existing laws and penalties on miss-use of scooters) to engage in writing a few very expensive tickets to violators.
At a recent sit-down with LAPD, we discussed the scooter menace and what could be done about it. They admitted that their office could do nothing to address the issue. Due to lack of staffing and funding they could not pull their patrol officers off “more serious” enforcement duties. In addition, several lawsuits brought by scooter riders who had been injured while fleeing enforcement officers on their scooters ruled against the police department, - even though the scooter riders’ actions were illegal. For this reason, the higher-ups have forbidden the officers from getting involved in apprehending scooter violators.
Dr. Di Stefano told me a very significant number of scooter-related trauma incidents come through the doors of his emergency room every month. Serious head and facial traumas, as well as fractures and dislocations, are not uncommon. Obviously, scooters are not being used in a safe fashion here in South Park. We must be concerned about the eventuality of a serious scooter/pedestrian accident in our future. Consider the damage a 200-pound man on a 50-pound scooter flying at maximum speed can do to a child, a pet, or a mother just out enjoying a walk in the neighborhood. It makes me shutter…
So, what can be done short of fielding vigilante groups with pitchforks? The only solution I can come up with is to outlaw these scooters and ban them from the neighborhood. If this is impractical, another solution would be to request the neighborhood be “geofenced” by requiring the speed of any scooter entering South Park to be automatically limited to “Turtlepace”. I assume this would indicate a maximum speed of less than five miles per hour. This geofencing technology has long been available to scooter business owners and has successfully removed scooters from LA Live from the very first day of their introduction to the area. We must convince or force these operators to apply geofencing to scooters entering or originating within South Park Boundaries. For this we will need a great outpouring of local resident sentiment against scooters and calls for the businesses putting scooters on the street to be better neighbors.
Here is another activist cause for anyone reading this. I would suggest that if you too are fed up with the violations of our safety happening every day in South Park, you write or call the South Park/Social District BID ((213) 663-1111 or info@lasocialdistrict.com) and District Councilperson Ysabel Jurado’s office (323-526-9332 or adan.acosta@lacity.org) and insist that something be done about this problem. Let’s not let a tragic scooter/pedestrian accident occur before we act!
By: John Nilsson