Is this even legal?

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Went in to the swamp today to pick up another set of fleece sheets because they're dirt cheap today. Protip: fleece sheets are very comfy and warm but not too warm. I prefer them to flannel sheets. Buy some fleece sheets if you see them anyplace.

Going up the main drag to the store, I noticed a traffic jam in the opposite direction; one that required me to sit through a traffic light change because a semi was caught in the intersection.

I had passed the reason for the jam a short distance earlier: a woman on one of those mobility scooters, going down the middle of the road, making half a mile an hour maybe.

I don't necessarily want to call this sucky because it may be the woman's only means of transportation and the sidewalks in town are bad. However, the roads are really no better due to all the ice. Turning in to the swamp's parking lot, I ended up behind a van smoking its tires trying to make the turn also.

And besides driving a small, slow vehicle like a mobility scooter sounds to me like a good way to get turned into street pizza.

[EvilEmpryss]

!!!

No, that is not legal. She needed to be on a sidewalk. It's quite possible that she got herself out there accidentally and just didn't know how to get herself out of the trouble she was in. It's also possible that the lights were on but nobody was home. Dementia can really mess with one's judgment. I hope someone called the cops for her own safety.

[BlaqueKatt]

No, that is not legal.

actually since Irv Lives in WI-it is perfectly legal.

Mobility scooters are covered under the bicycle laws in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Statutes 346.80 - Riding bicycle or electric personal assistive mobility device on roadway

and remember Practicable=/=possible when reading those laws*

I actually carry a wallet card with the WI state bicycle statues sadly both drivers and the police are woefully ignorant of traffic laws, while me, who has never had anything beyond a learner's permit almost 20 years ago knows most of them.

And besides driving a small, slow vehicle like a mobility scooter sounds to me like a good way to get turned into street pizza.

not really-unless you have drivers that aren't paying attention-I'm still riding my bicycle in this, I don't feel at all unsafe(I feel terribly unsafe in a car actually-sometimes to the point of panic)-did last year as well, got hit once, but the driver was on a cell phone and was so oblivious she didn't even realize she hit me(didn't stop, I wasn't hurt badly, just a couple bruises.)


*this is the gist of the difference-yes it's possible for someone to climb Mt Everest in a bikini in the winter, but it's not practicable.

practicable=feasible/suitable

[EvilEmpryss]

I stand corrected, it is legal. Except I think that she may have been in violation of the law by being in the middle of the two-way road and not in the process of making a turn. She should have been as close as possible to the right hand side of the road (excepting for hazards, etc., etc., etc.).

You make a very good point about the difference between practical and possible, BK. I'm betting that the law was intended to cover people with scooters to legally go into the street in areas where there are no sidewalks. Having used those things, though, there is no way in hell it would ever have crossed my mind to actually move into traffic like a bike or a car... especially on anything that might even remotely be termed a "highway" as the WI law allows!

[BlaqueKatt]

You make a very good point about the difference between practical and possible, BK.

yeah I've had to explain it numerous times to people that stop to yell at me that I'm not riding either in the gutter or the parking lane because "the law says as far right as possible"- um no, then I pull out my handy wallet card with the EXACT wording of the statutes, and have to explain the difference of the words. Sadly I've had to do this with law enforcement officers as well, as I've had drivers call the police on me.

I normally go with totally absurd explanations of simple concepts, I find it tends to go over better, and people don't get as defensive, yay for skills picked up in the call center! I think it's the "wait did she just say,...oh yeah I get it now" forcing them to think about what you just said for a second, try it-it works about 95% of the time.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

not really-unless you have drivers that aren't paying attention-I'm still riding my bicycle in this, I don't feel at all unsafe(I feel terribly unsafe in a car actually-sometimes to the point of panic)-did last year as well, got hit once, but the driver was on a cell phone and was so oblivious she didn't even realize she hit me(didn't stop, I wasn't hurt badly, just a couple bruises.)

I should mention we've got some dandy snowbanks piled up along the corners of some of our streets. Also I would never accuse local drivers of paying attention.

[PepperElf]

yeah. there's been a ton of snow here too. so people who would normally be on the sidewalks (be them bikers or pedestrians) are walking on the roads instead.

though my gripe isn't with them for being on the road... my own gripe is for the people who don't shovel their sidewalks off like they're suppose to.

[EvilEmpryss]

Ah-HA! I was both right an wrong with my first comment about the illegality of this!

It is legal in some places, but illegal in others. I wonder if this was the same person IP Freleigh saw?
http://www.wxii12.com/video/26400518/detail.html

[Dreamstalker]

There's a guy around here with one of the mobility scooters who rides around in traffic; I even saw him tootling down the T tracks once He loves flipping people off if called on it.

[Kogarashi]

It is legal in some places, but illegal in others. I wonder if this was the same person IP Freleigh saw?
http://www.wxii12.com/video/26400518/detail.html

Judging from the video caption, not the same person unless IPF was in CT that day. Really stupid, though. People regularly go faster than the speed limit on I-95 if able, and probably wouldn't see him until too late. He's lucky he wasn't trying that in a huge traffic jam. Far too many people ignore the "Don't drive on shoulder" rule then, and probably wouldn't have seen him until it was too late.

[Teskeria]

I've lived in 2 cities where they enforced the shovel your walks off. in Mass and in Ne. (dont know if Omaha still does) in Omaha, when I lived there, you had 24 hours after the storm ended to have your entire walk shoveled, left to right property line and up to your mailbox. (door was optional, though recommended). Otherwise the city sent a man to shovel and it cost you $50.00. (I've heard it went up soon after I left back in 95 or so). And you couldnt get around that $50.00. per storm. Amazing how many places shoveled a path. Fine was higher for businesses.

[Argus]

Otherwise the city sent a man to shovel and it cost you $50.00. (I've heard it went up soon after I left back in 95 or so). And you couldnt get around that $50.00. per storm. Amazing how many places shoveled a path. Fine was higher for businesses.

In Kohler, WI back in the sixties, the cost was less, and it went to teenagers that the town hired to do that shoveling. So if someone couldn't do that personally for some reason, there wouldn't be much point in hiring someone else.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

In Kohler, WI back in the sixties, the cost was less, and it went to teenagers that the town hired to do that shoveling. So if someone couldn't do that personally for some reason, there wouldn't be much point in hiring someone else.

And now you could probably get people from the Kohler company to do that really cheap, what with them laying off people left and right.

[bainsidhe]

I'm really not keen on the idea of a scooter tootleling along down the middle of the road, because it seems like a huge traffic hazard. Off to the side of the road (as snowbanks/weather permit) makes more sense, though it still rattles my nerves as a driver. Common sense tells me why they do it, considering the lackluster side-walk shoveling jobs I see around here.

As for the pedestrians who choose to walk down the middle of the road mid-summer and who don't bother to look at their surroundings...*shakes fist*