Advocating for Seattle Scooters & Scooterists

Today, I rode my scooter up to Broadway in order to check out a couple of eateries, including our newest business, Yogurtland.

After circling the block once, I found a parking space in front of one of the restaurants. I backed my scooter in so that my rear wheel was touching the curb (as is required by law), purchased my parking sticker, and hung it on my headlamp (again, as required by law).

As I was stowing my helmet, a woman in a mid-sized car pulled up, rolled down her window, and asked “Can you move your scooter over so I can squeeze in there too?”. I stepped back, sized up the available space to the left and right of my scooter, and then said “I’m sorry, but if you make me get too close to one of these vehicles, they will knock my scooter over when they leave.”

I wasn’t exaggerating. In the last 10 years, my scooter has been knocked over a dozen times by car drivers who either don’t see my scooter, don’t care about my scooter, or resent that my scooter takes up a space designated for cars.

“You don’t need to take up all that space!”, the woman shot back.

For some reason, car drivers assume us scooter riders are entitled to less space than they are entitled to, because they assume we pay less than they do.

This is not the case.

We pay the exact same rates as SUV’s, and not a penny less. We also pay the exact same fines. The fact of the matter is that the City of Seattle penalizes people for riding scooters. I’ve measured my scooter against a typical full-sized car, and I’ve discovered that I could fit 5-6 of my scooters in the same spot. This estimate is conservative. As such, for equal amounts of curb space, scooter riders pay 5 times as much. This is inequitable, but those in City Hall do not seem to be concerned about it.

“I’m very sorry, ma’am,” I said ,”I’m just not comfortable squeezing my scooter up against one of these cars so you can get in. Really, I’m sorry.” The lady drove off, and I figured that was the end of it. When I left the yogurt shop, however, I realized that she may have intended to get the last word.

When I got back to my scooter, I noticed that my parking sticker was gone. Someone had taken it, as they had already done two other times in the last 6 weeks.

Why did they take it? Well … why wouldn’t they?

It’s a free parking sticker, and there’s certainly nothing stopping them. When you rip a parking sticker off of a motorcycle/scooter, you can use that sticker anywhere else in the City of Seattle to park for free. Up to 2 hours. Now that parking rates on The Hill and Downtown have doubled to $4/hour, stealing cycle stickers has become even more and more attractive for those who simply cannot afford the rates.

However, it’s not just deadbeats who steal the stickers. People can also rip off the stickers if you anger them, or they just don’t like you for whatever reason. As you get a parking ticket from the city, or have to spend the day in court fighting it, revenge is theirs. I have no way of proving it, but I suspect this may have happened today with the lady who was upset with my refusal to move my scooter.

Of couse, this indignity does not befall car, truck, and SUV drivers. Automobiles are given protection of the law so long as they are displaying a parking sticker. Since this sticker is displayed behind locked glass, it enjoys reasonable protection from theft or alteration. Motorcycle and scooters, on the other hand, enjoy no such protection. Instead, we are forced to purchase a sticker, and affix that sticker to our headlamps.

It is incidental to pilfer this sticker.

I’ve read numerous accounts online where people have had their sticker stolen, and they have had to spend a day in court trying to dispute it before a judge. From their accounts, the judge has always required that the rider show a credit card receipt from the parking station in order to have the ticket thrown out. Those who paid with cash have typically been on the hook … essentially victimized twice.

In my opinion, this violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution.

It is not reasonable to believe that these stickers will not be liberally stolen, especially as the city escalates parking rates, and it imparts upon the cycle-riding victim a burden. A burden not equally shared among all classes of vehicle owners.

As such, I have decided to become an advocate for scooter riders here in the City of Seattle, and I’ve decided to explore legal options to protect the rights of riders.

I appeal to the city to help me solve this issue without litigation, but I will seek counsel should it be absolutely necessary.

In a potential suit against the city, I will and do allege the following:

1) Scooters are hyper-efficient vehicles which address many, if not most surface transit issues facing the City of Seattle. They reduce pollution, dramatically reduce energy consumption, dramatically reduce traffic congestion, and dramatically reduce wear and tear on infrastructure. They do all of the above with absolutely no additional city services, such as bicycle lanes, and they do all of the above while requiring the operator to pay for licensing and registration. Scooters not only pay for themselves, they result in a surplus to the city (licensing/registration fees minus impact). In this regard, they are an even larger benefit to the State and City than are bicycles;

2) The City of Seattle forces motorcycle/scooter riders to pay a 500% markup for equivalent standing space on public property. If the rider attempts to use bicycle parking, they are ticketed for illegal parking. If the scooter parks parallel to the curb, essentially taking as much space as an automobile, the cycle is ticketed for illegal parking. If the scooter parks legally, the scooter is often moved, knocked over, or otherwise abused by automobile drivers;

3) The City of Seattle forces the motorcycle/scooter rider to purchase a parking sticker and to leave that sticker in a place where it can be, and is, routinely stolen. There is absolutely no deterrent to this theft, and it takes less than 1 second to effectuate. As such, the City of Seattle provides no reasonably secure manner in which to display the sticker;

4) In the event the sticker is absconded with, the City of Seattle forces the scooter/motorcycle rider to take a complete day off from work, or a day off from leisure, and the City requires the rider to pay for travel to and from the courthouse to cure the City’s deficiency in point #3. This is an undue burden and hardship which other classes of operators are not expected to endure for a properly purchased parking sticker;

5) The City of Seattle discriminates against those riders who use cash in the adjudication of tickets issued in point #4. Since cycle riders who pay cash cannot possibly “prove” that their stickers were stolen, the City of Seattle effectively forces cycle riders to buy their parking tickets with credit or debit cards, or to pay the City of Seattle a penalty for not using those cards;

6) The City of Seattle does not provide equal protection under the law to motorcycle/scooter riders, and in fact, penalizes them for using smaller, more efficient, more environmentally friendly, and less congesting forms of transportation;

If you are an attorney here in the City of Seattle, and you specialize in motorcycle/scooter rights or 14th Amendment issues, please email me at SeattleRex@gmail.com.

If you are a motorcycle/scooter rider here in Seattle that has had a parking sticker stolen, thus requiring you to spend the day in court and/or pay a fine, I would also like to hear from you.

Failing reasonable address of this issue by the City, I would like to pursue a class action suit, to whatever extent possible, against the City for compensation.

Last but not least, I would like to respectfully urge the City of Seattle to stop penalizing scooter riders.

Clearly, scooters are not treated as equals on the road. Since the metal detectors or pressure plates at stop lights often do not detect my scooter, I have been forced to run red lights during off-peak hours at the great risk of injury, and risk of a traffic ticket to myself. This occurs even though I pay licensing and registration fees. The city and state collects my money without using that money in return for my benefit, or the benefit of other scooter riders.

Despite Seattle’s tireless efforts to force me into an automobile, my scooter is a form of transportation that I take daily, and my use of this mode of transit greatly benefits the City of Seattle and its residents. My impact on the roads are less, my impact on the environment is less, and my impact on traffic congestion is dramatically less.

When you make laws which are punitive toward scooter riders, you are not just hurting myself and other riders, you are hurting the citizens of Seattle by actively discouraging more efficient vehicles which have a far lessor impact upon the people’s infrastructure.

Last, but not least, I am contemplating starting a scooter group here in Seattle. Perhaps something consisting of a message board, group rides, and advocacy. Most other vehicle operators are well-represented in the city, but we are generally left to fend for ourselves. Clearly, there is power in numbers.

If you are interested, please email SeattleRex@gmail.com.

Thank you for your time.

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