The elected officials of Hapeville discussed Tuesday night how to regulate electric scooters within the city's 2.5 square miles.
City manager Tim Young said Wednesday that officials don’t seem to want an outright ban — like Alpharetta, Marietta and Norcross — but are still considering the best tack.
Some metro Atlanta cities have put a 12-month pause on letting the scooters roam free to give the municipalities time to research the devices.
During this year's legislative session, two bills that would have set statewide standards were parked so lawmakers could negotiate more with scooter companies. That delay set off a steady flow of cities moving to enact their own regulations.
READ | Alpharetta bans e-scooters, becoming first in North Fulton to do so
Young said he has spotted scooters around Hapeville, but the airport-adjacent city of 6,500 residents is about eight miles away from the thickest concentration of the devices: Midtown.
A year and a half ago, Midtown's sidewalks were flooded with scooters, forcing Atlanta politicians to create rules.
Like in Atlanta and many other cities, Young said he is worried that the scooters can be seemingly left anywhere, cluttering sidewalks and disrupting traffic.
READ | Which metro Atlanta cities have banned e-scooters?
Other municipalities have also brought up that Georgia's largest hospital, Grady Memorial, estimates it receives 80 to 100 scooter-related injuries a month ranging from head injuries to broken limbs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is studying scooter injuries in Austin, Texas.
Young said city staff and the legal department will work together to come up with Hapeville’s plan for regulating the devices.
He said he expects the City Council will have something to vote on by its next scheduled meeting, which is July 2.
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