6/30/04
City Council Approves Mini Motor Bike Restrictions

The Boston City Council today unanimously passed a city ordinance that prohibits the use of gas-powered scooters, mini motorbikes, and power boards on Boston streets and sidewalks and gives Boston police and city transportation officials the authority to issue fines to individuals in violation of the restrictions.

Boston City Councillor John M. Tobin, Jr. filed an order with the Council’s Aviation and Transportation Committee in May calling for hearings to consider restricting the vehicles. As a result of that order, numerous city residents and representatives of the Boston Police Department and the Boston Transportation Department testified in favor of a ban at a joint hearing of the council’s Government Operations and Aviation and Transportation committees earlier this month.

“These vehicles are noisy and disruptive and they pose a threat to the safety of the city’s neighborhoods,” said City Councillor Tobin, whose district includes West Roxbury and Jamaica Plain. “They are a danger to the children who ride them on our city’s busy streets and they are a hazard to the drivers of cars, trucks and buses who cannot see them on the roads.”

The legislation was prompted by the proliferation of mini motor bikes in Boston’s neighborhoods, one of the city’s most popular trends this summer. The mini motor bikes, which resemble small motorcycles, range in height from about 18 inches to three feet. They are low to the ground and difficult for many drivers to see.

The ordinance also includes gas-powered scooters and powerboards, which are similar to scooters. Motorized wheelchairs and other devices designed to assist the disabled are exempt from the legislation, as are mopeds and motorcycles that are registered with the Massachusetts Department of Motor Vehicles.

The ordinance prohibits the use of these vehicles on city streets, sidewalks, private ways, and public school property. Violators face a $25 fine for the first offense and a $50 fine for every offense thereafter.

According to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, motorized mini scooter-related injuries are on the rise growing from 1,330 reported cases in 1999 to nearly 2,900 between January and September of 2001. Forty percent of the injuries caused by motorized scooters were to children under 15.

The ordinance requires the signature of Mayor Thomas M. Menino to become law in the City of Boston.