To the Mayor and City Council of Washington, DC:

There is no doubt that e-scooters are an important and increasingly popular form of alternative transportation for many people. Neither is there any doubt that e-scooters can be — and have been — dangerous and even deadly for riders and pedestrians around the country. The facts —- and the studies by the Centers for Disease Control, UCLA, other credible organizations, and the experiences and observations of ER doctors — speak for themselves.

As citizens of the the District of Columbia, we believe that e-scooter riders should be banned from all sidewalks, and we support passage of tougher e-scooter safety laws that include the following penalties and incentives:

PENALTIES

- Stiff fines for riders who do not wear helmets or who use cellphones or wear headphones while riding.

- Imposing a $100 fine on every rider who leaves their e-scooter in an unsafe place on sidewalks or streets.

- For every e-scooter that a rider leaves in an unsafe place on sidewalks or streets, the number of scooters that the company could have in the city would be reduced by 100, effective immediately.

INCENTIVES

- People should be rewarded for reporting the location of hazardously abandoned e-scooters or confiscating the scooters and storing them in a safe location.

- Individuals would receive $50 for every reported and verified transgression and the safe return of the e-scooter to the company. The bounty would be paid by the company that owns the e-scooter.

We should not wait until there are any more deaths or injuries from e-scooters in our city. We must do all we can now about the obvious risks a growing number of e-scooter riders pose to themselves, automobile drivers, and pedestrians. For more information about this urgent public safety issue, please go to DangerousDCScooters.com.