The Evolving Purpose and Scope of this Site

Over the past decade electrically powered bicycles, stand-up scooters, skateboards, and more have burst onto the nation’s streets and sidewalks. Embedded technology combined with widespread smartphone ownership enabled well-funded start-ups to distribute large numbers of these novel electric vehicles across urban spaces, offering them for on-demand, short-term rental. This blossoming of “micromobility” has taken place within physical and legal infrastructures ill-prepared for the change. Indisputably, most of the new types of individual motorized mobility fell outside established vehicle categories. The literal terms of existing law banned their use on all public rights of way, whether roadway, bicycle path, or sidewalk.

This site maps the ad hoc, largely industry-driven, and still-distressingly-incomplete adjustment of U.S. vehicle and traffic laws to accommodate and regulate the rapid spread of electrically-powered personal mobility devices.

When launched in early 2019 the site focused on e-scooters.  Its scope is being expanded to encompass a wider array of these small e-vehicles.  Since there is no uniform national law governing the field, but, instead, a quilt of federal, state, and local regulations, the site's principal ambition is to provide pathways to the relevant legal authorities, interesting legislative or regulatory proposals, and useful commentary.  It also seeks to provide a framework that may assist understanding how they fit together and encourage research on the emerging issues. 

For a paper proving a preliminary sketch of the field, see  Peter W. Martin, Micromobility Law: Major Road Work Ahead (2022).

The site's materials are, at present, organized into the following topics:

• The twentieth century vehicle and traffic laws into which micromobility devices must be inserted
  • A sketch of the dominant state code architecture and definitions of critical terms
    • Useful compilations of states laws on:
      • Bicycles (League of American Bicyclists)
      • Mopeds and motorized bicycles (Moped2.org)
  • Federal highway safety regulation and micromobility devices
• The sequence of legislative changes that granted some micromobility devices access to public ways
  • Powered wheelchairs
  • Segways (and hoverboards)
  • Electric bicycles (e-bikes)
  • Electric scooters (e-scooters)
    • State laws on scooter operation
    • A Template for Drafting or Amending State E-Scooter Legislation, with Alternatives and Accompanying Notes
    • Approaches of individual local governments
      • Currently highlighted municipalities:
        • Seattle, WA (report on pilot ending in 2021)
        • Cincinnati, OH (requiring third party liability insurance and imposing a curfew)
        • New York City, NY (expanding initial East Bronx pilot)
        • Charlotte, NC (adding adaptive devices provided by Helbiz)
        • San Diego, CA (report on current program with recommended changes)
      • Noteworthy elements of the regulatory approaches that some communities have adopted
  • Devices that most states have not yet addressed
    • Powered skateboards
    • Powered single-wheeled devices (monowheels or e-unicycles)
• Background material:
  • Developments in the scooter-rental business (including the effects of the pandemic) and developments in the features of these vehicles, (including some that may bear upon or facilitate their regulation)
  • The impact of micromobility devices on urban transportation and safety
  • Litigation over e-scooter rental, use, and scooter company business practices
  • Terms and conditions of use imposed by the major shared-device companies

Invitation

The site remains very much a work in progress. If you spot an error in these materials or are aware of a state or local legal development warranting coverage, please send the details, if possible with the pertinent URL, to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Peter W. Martin
Cornell Law School
Site Editor