ATLANTA (AP) - The Georgia Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that could lead the state to taking a hands-off approach to the regulation of electric scooters.
Senate Bill 159 would define electric scooters in state law but do nothing else, leaving regulation up to local governments. The state Senate passed the bill 47-0, sending it to the House for consideration.
State Sen. Steve Gooch, a Republican from Dahlonega sponsoring the proposal, said the legislation "simply codifies what a scooter is ... and it also preserves any further regulation to be left for the local governments."
The cities of Atlanta, Brookhaven and Decatur have authorized scooters, as has Georgia Southern University. But a Senate study committee report compiled last year found that 12 other cities had banned or placed temporary moratoriums on scooters, including Athens, Columbus, Macon, Savannah and eight Atlanta suburbs.
"One of the things that we heard throughout the process was that one size does not fit all," Gooch said from the floor of the Senate on Tuesday.
The bill was amended just before passage by the Senate to include language that encourages local governments to consider liability insurance requirements when setting their ordinances and policies.
Last year's study committee, which Gooch chaired, recommended regulating impounds and encouraging safer scooter designs and docks to help alleviate the problem of scooters blocking sidewalks. But it also said the state should be careful not to overregulate the industry.
The devices have been blamed for a rash of injuries. Grady Memorial Hospital found it treated at least 400 and probably 600 injuries from scooters in Atlanta from June 2018 to September 2019, and four fatalities were recorded in Atlanta and East Point.