By SIERRA HIGNITE
WISH-TV | wishtv.com
Carmel officials want to be ready if dockless, electric scooters for rent start popping up.
Carmel officials are proposing to expand an ordinance – originally created for scooters, skateboards and other personally owned devices with wheels – to exclude them from the Midtown area and the Arts & Design District.
“We are looking at specifically the garages and publicly owned facilities, like our benches, and we have some sculptures and artwork,” said Jeff Worrell, Carmel City Council president.
The discussion about expanding the ordinance has included talk about what Carmel’s future might look like with electric scooters for rent. Indianapolis has at least three vendors for rental scooters.
Worrell said Wednesday he will entertain any transportation to help citizens get around safely. “The dockless scooters are not in Carmel at this time. We are working on some preparations to be ready, should they come, but right now it would apply to them if they were here.”
Carmel City Council President Jeff Worrell says the city is working to prepare for dockless scooters. (Photo provided)
The current ordinance allows people to ride personally-owned devices on streets and sidewalks as long as they are being safe and courteous to other pedestrians and drivers.
“We know that as government officials we need to be ready to deal with the side effects and the unwanted consequences,” Worrell said.
The council recently surveyed residents about rental scooters and found a lot of negative pushback. Some said they believe rental scooters in Carmel would not provide the convenience they do in other cities.
Some Carmel residents told News 8 that they believe electric scooters may do more harm than good.
Freddy Kelvin said, “It would be so disruptive to have scooters charging backward and forward when people are really trying to enjoy themselves in an uninterrupted and safe manner.”
Courtney Kingston, who lives in Indianapolis but frequently comes to Carmel to visit family, said, “We like to use scooters a lot downtown because there is a lot of places that are pretty far away to go to, especially with all the traffic. But in downtown Carmel, I don’t feel like they’d really need to be used that much because there is so much accessibility.”