College St. on a recent Friday night. Video by David Hartman.
(Opinion) It took less than a month for Veo’s rent-to-ride scooters to shift from New Haven’s newest and a practical way to get around town, to being an after-dark, dangerous, reckless pastime for city youth.
The offenses committed by dozens of thrill-riding teens are, quite frankly, as egregious and threatening as those of illegal dirt-bike and quad riders. At least we can hear those coming.
The assurance from Veo Director of Government Partnerships Jeff Hoover to city alders was apparently forgotten or forgiven. They don’t slow to a stop as promised and do operate on sidewalks.
On any given evening (mainly at night), teen riders mount Veo’s scooters for hours, “playing chicken” with motorists as they weave around, often oncoming traffic. Several pedestrians have been struck by these riders both on sidewalks and at crosswalks.
The troublemakers are not utilizing a newfound mode of transportation to get to any destination.
Their reasons: To flip the middle finger at public safety and get a thrill while doing it.
Downtown has become their amusement park with a dangerous new ride.
Veo, the city’s contracted vendor, requires riders be 18+. Not enforced.
Sidewalk riding prohibited. Obviously not.
Veo’s Safe Riding Tips dictate wearing a helmet. I haven’t seen a single person wearing one.
No doubling up. Two riders per scooter are common.
Obeying traffic laws. You’ve got to be joking.
When they’re done, one can find them piled up on sidewalks, or tossed on the Green. I’ve seen one impaled in a flower planter, and worse, blocking the way for anyone relying on wheelchair or ADA passage.
Add this mess to rowdy club-goers, travel lanes filled with double-parked cars, illegally parked food delivery vehicles, street take-overs at the Crown Street Garage egress, minutes of fireworks exploding at College and Crown (a couple weeks ago), the occasional burst of gunfire, constant, offensive and hazardous levels of amplified booming bass sounds from vehicles, burn-outs on bike and quads…
This is more reason for downtown residents, city visitors, theatergoers, diner patrons and the public to stay away from the area in the evenings. Business owners are pissed off and talking about this! Their patrons are too!
This Reddit post just last week describes teen rider takeovers in Navy Yard, DC.
If these scooters were motor vehicles, the charges for the flagrant way they’re being ridden would easily escalate from motor vehicle infractions to criminal risk of injury and reckless driving charges.
Now… before anyone pipes up about the lack of police enforcement, I can tell you it’d be next to impossible to corral gangs of menacing kids weaving in and out of traffic without a physical ambush. And then what? The State of Connecticut does not include electric foot scooters as “Motor Vehicles” under Sec. 14 – 1.
I invite the alders that supported this to come down and see for yourselves. Pick a night and stay late. As a city fire commissioner, I’m worried about the public’s safety. An effort must be made to assure these scooters are used as intended.
Here are several suggestions.
• Shut them down at a reasonable hour. Perhaps unrentable after 9:00 p.m. and not operational after 10:00 p.m.
• Keep charging the renter until the scooter is returned to a designated spot.
• Affix a clear marker number (like a license plate) so violations can be narrowed down to the rider at the time.
• And require Veo to report the public’s safety concerns and complaints to the city rather than just manning their own tip lines. Right now, it’s the fox guarding the henhouse.
Consider that some cities have imposed curfews. Some have established “No Ride Zones” between evening and morning hours. If we don’t, it’s only a matter of time before more property is damaged, more people are hurt, and God forbid, worse.
David Hartman is a Westville resident, retired city police officer, and current member of the city’s Board of Fire Commissioners.
More videos by David Hartman.