Go-Peds Can’t Scoot Around Law Against Motorized Skateboards

Dear Street Smart:

I have a question regarding go-peds, those two-wheel scooters with small engines and brakes.

Before buying one for my son a year and a half ago, I checked with the Irvine police and was told that there are no restrictions but that go-peds had to be driven in the street and that traffic laws needed to be obeyed.

Recently, my son and others have been warned that their go-peds are illegal according to California Vehicle Code Section 21968. A captain of the Irvine Police Department told me that this section covers motorized “skateboards.”

Technically, a go-ped is not a skateboard. The captain said the reason for the sudden enforcement was complaints from residents, rather than some sudden recognition of the law.

These go-peds travel about 20 mph and everyone I have seen using one wears a helmet.

What is the law?

Richard Roks

Irvine

Go-peds are considered motorized skateboards and therefore are illegal.

“They are dangerous,” said Tom Hume, a spokesman for the Irvine Police Department. “It’s like any kid driving a motorized vehicle; they are competing against vehicles that are 3,000 to 4,000 pounds, and it comes down to whether they will have the wherewithal to get out of a situation. Kids tend not to always be alert to the dangers involved.”

While the department has always enforced the ban on motorized skateboards, said Sam Allevato, head of its traffic bureau, the problem has become more acute during the last year.

“A lot more violations have been occurring, and we’ve gotten more complaints,” Allevato said. “The officers are seeing more and more of them and, because of that, they are taking more action.”

Dear Street Smart:

Can you get any information on Senate Bill 42--the classic car smog exemption? Wilson is supposed to have it on his desk this week. Thanks.

Mike Tingley

Laguna Hills

Actually, Gov. Wilson signed it into law last week. The bill will amend and update the previous smog exemption law enacted in the early 1980s. “We’re all jumping for joy,” said Steven Schnaidt, principal consultant for the Senate Transportation Committee, whose chairman, Quentin L. Kopp (I-San Francisco), sponsored the bill.

Under current law, cars manufactured in 1966 or earlier are exempt from the every-other-year smog check required of newer cars. The new law, which takes effect Jan. 1, will change that year to 1973, as well as introduce a “rolling” exemption for any car that is at least 30 years old beginning in 2003.

“The idea is that cars that old are one of two things,” Schnaidt said. “They are either classics that are well-maintained or they are cars that are not driven. There was a groundswell of support for this.”

Schnaidt said the new law, which was opposed by such groups as the Air Resources Board and Bureau of Automotive Repair, will have minimal impact on air pollution because it will affect only 1.5% of the state’s 400,000 passenger cars, and most of those are not driven much anyway.

“These are not the cars that people are using to commute,” he said.

Dear Street Smart:

A neighbor is spreading the rumor that using daylight running lights decreases gas mileage. I tell him it would take a Cray computer to figure the difference. What is the truth?

Willis McNelly

Fullerton

You are right: The negative effect daytime running lights have on gas mileage is almost too minuscule to measure. So bring out that supercomputer. What effect there is, said Jay Minotas, a manager at General Motors, results from the extra work the engine must do to run the drive belt required to recharge the car’s battery because of its drain by the lights.

But daytime running lights--designed to make the car more visible by automatically staying lit whenever it is driven--draw far less voltage than regular headlights. “The safety benefits far outweigh anything you would see in terms of a hit on the gas mileage,” Minotas said.

Street Smart appears Mondays in The Times Orange County Edition. Readers are invited to submit comments and questions about traffic, commuting and what makes it difficult to get around in Orange County. Include simple sketches if helpful. Letters may be published in upcoming columns. Please write to David Haldane, c/o Street Smart, The Times Orange County Edition, P.O. Box 2008, Costa Mesa, CA 92626, send faxes to (714) 966-7711 or e-mail him at David.Haldane@latimes.com. Include your full name, address and day and evening phone numbers. Letters may be edited, and no anonymous letters will be accepted.