Comments on: When Is a Wheelchair a Pedestrian and When Is It a Vehicle?

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 00:03:36 +0000

Where I live in Maine, the sidewalks are brick and poorly cleared in the winter after a snowfall and often rough going by any vehicle year around. There seems to be a trend among the more daring mobility scooterers to take to the street and I don’t blame them. As a bicyclist, I do my best to make common cause with them. The more people in the street who aren’t encased in cars, the better for all of us.

By: anonymouse

anonymouse — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 02:04:38 +0000

I’d put them in the bicycle category myself, or whatever category electric-assist bikes go in. It fits by speed if nothing else, and there are electric-assist bikes with motors, which seem like a pretty close fit in terms of classification. I don’t think I’d mind sharing a bike lane with a 12 mph mobility scooter, but I’d definitely mind sharing a narrow sidewalk.

By: David Hembrow

David Hembrow — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 15:10:39 +0000

FWIW, in the Netherlands, wheelchairs and mobility scooters are legally bicycles. The existance of a decent network of cycle paths makes them much more useful for actually getting somewhere.

By: Jay

Jay — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 19:09:19 +0000

I didn’t realize they were getting so fast. Supermarkets will need speed limits in the aisles.

By: Josh R

Josh R — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 16:32:01 +0000

Personally I think “brisk” walking pace is too much a lot of the time. I work at a library and we get some people whipping around in mobility scooters at speeds that don’t amount to much when compared to a car, but are far too fast for inside a building. It’s an annoying disconnect that people see these scooters buzzing by at 10-12MPH and don’t see anything wrong, but if a teenager ran by at the same speed, they’d be considered reckless and told to slow down, despite the fact that the teen can stop far faster and has less mass to cause injury if a collision happens.

By: Thomas

Thomas — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 23:11:35 +0000

It’s also a matter of size.

I’ve seen mobility scooters that are larger than and can keep up with a 50cc Vespa-style scooter or a small go-cart. If these things are vehicles, then a mobility scooter is likewise.

As far as this accident goes, if the thing can go significantly faster than a healthy person at a brisk walking pace, then it stands to reason that it poses the same dangers as a vehicle and should be considered one.

By: Andy

Andy — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 19:28:35 +0000

If it’s capable of going more than 10mph on flat ground, it should definitely be considered a motorized vehicle. I’m not sure what the typical powered wheelchair has in terms of speed, but I think most are below this. I have seen gas powered, and heavy duty electric ones that are capable of 20mph or so, which in my opinion are not “pedestrian.”