Transportation Law Commons^™

U.S. Micromobility Law (Major Road Work Ahead), Peter W. Martin

Cornell Law Faculty Working Papers

Over the past decade electrically powered bicycles, stand-up scooters, skateboards, and more have burst onto the nation’s streets and sidewalks. While some have been owned by their riders, a combination of embedded technology and smartphone apps allowed well-funded start-ups to distribute these novel e-vehicles across urban public spaces, making them available for on-demand, short-term rental. This blossoming of “micromobility” has taken place within physical and legal infrastructures ill-prepared for the change. Indisputably, most of the new types of individual motorized mobility fell outside established vehicle categories. The literal terms of existing law banned their use on all public rights of …