This is year two of Hastings having rentable scooters and it seems as though the popularity of them is growing with all of the usage around town, but the positivity of people getting out and using them has a downside, too. Last year it was Bird scooters in the Vermillion River, this year its Spin scooters parked in all sorts of wrong places.

Before the wrong places are spelled out, the reminder needs to be put out there, the rental of these scooters requires the renter to be 18 years old or older. This requirement has a lot behind it, one of those things being, adults should be able to determine a safe and intelligent place to park the scooters, but that has not stopped the glaringly bad places where these scooters are simply left.

I have witnessed dangerous and point-blank rude behavior on these scooters, such as two young adults or late teens cruising down the middle of the driving lane on 15th Street West on Monday as I was headed out to take some pictures for this week’s paper. These two were clearly driving in the vehicle lane on purpose and they made no effort to yield the right of way to vehicular traffic.

I have also asked myself ‘why in the heck would anyone think THAT is a good spot to park a scooter?’ way more than any one person ever should.

There was one scooter left at the corner of 18th Street West and Pine Street for several days. This scooter was blocking the entire ramp up to both sidewalks. There was no way for anyone pushing a stroller or in any kind of wheelchair or other mobility devices to make it safely onto either sidewalk because of this awful parking job. This was the catalyst of this editorial. I was angry about it because my father uses a mobility scooter to get around in stores and when the family goes to things like the state fair. It hit me that if he were to try to go for a ‘walk’ with my niece when she is over, they would not be able to use that corner to cross safely, so, how many others does it affect?

At the other end of Pine Street, near County Road 47, there have been numerous times where there is a scooter parked in the middle of the sidewalk, much like the accompanying picture from the Affinity Plus Ribbon Cutting. There was a scooter left in the middle of the sidewalk on North Frontage Road during that event. There are also numerous reports from people around town seeing the same behaviors.

How many little kids learning to ride a bike could not get to the safety of the sidewalk because of that scooter and the dozens of other times I have seen them parked in the middle of a public sidewalk? Yes, I know that bikes are not technically allowed on sidewalks, I’m talking about the kids with training wheels just learning the rules and safety of biking that are being escorted by the parents walking with them and holding them up.

Public rights-of-way are not where these scooters are to be parked, neither are car parking spaces, or the middle of store parking lots or people’s private property. But where should they be parked? Many of the sidewalks around town now have a boulevard of grass between the sidewalk and the street, but that opens up another issue, how then does a boulevard get mowed? If the scooter is being used to visit a local business, get the scooter parked as close to the wall of the business as possible without blocking the entrances or the sidewalk.

What can a non-user do about the scooters being left in a bad spot?

First, don’t just pick them up and move them, they are alarmed, and the sound is incredibly annoying.

To do something about it, you need to have the SPIN app installed on your mobile device. Once you install the app, you will need to create an account, but that is pretty easy and simple to do. After the account is setup and you are signed into the app, look at the lower left portion of the screen for the exclamation point. Tap it and you will see a screen that says, “REPORT ISSUE”. Tap the improper parking option and scan the vehicle number in the top line. There you have a few options to select from, one being ‘Blocking Path’.

The scooters have been a welcome addition to town by many and many people do a great job of being safe and courteous while using and parking them. As is the norm, it only takes a small minority to ruin it for everyone else.