Do Tacoma police plan to crack down on e-scooter riders going without helmets?

Q: Do helmet laws apply to folks riding those new rent-a-scooters in Tacoma? — Jim R.

A: You betcha, Jim.

Whether the local constabulary has the time, resources or desire to enforce them is a whole other matter.

First, some background.

The TNT’s Debbie Cockrell has reported extensively on Lime and Bird bringing their electric scooters to Tacoma. Lime also offers bikes. Basically, riders use an app to unlock the vehicles and then pay to ride them, usually in per-minute increments.

Fans say the scooters and bikes give folks a relatively inexpensive way to buzz around town. The get-off-my-lawn types complain they are a menace and can clutter sidewalks.

We here at Traffic Q&A Headquarters generally have a “drive and let drive” attitude about such things, but we might have muttered under our breath occasionally about packs of scooter riders weaving through pedestrians near UWT.

But we digress.

The Tacoma Municipal Code clearly states in Chapter 11 that helmets are required for the operation of a so-called “motorized foot scooter.” We refer you to Subsection D of 11.06.040, titled, “Rules of operation.” To wit:

“Any person operating ... a motorized foot scooter shall wear a protective helmet that meets or exceeds safety standards for bicycle helmets as currently adopted, or as subsequently revised, by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and shall have the neck or chinstrap of the helmet fastened securely while the device is in motion.”

The chapter goes on to say that “any person violating the provisions of this chapter shall be deemed to have committed a traffic infraction.”

Now, these Lime and Bird contraptions don’t come with helmets, so many folks ride without the necessary headgear. In fact, we have yet to see an e-scooter rider with a helmet, despite admonitions from both companies that helmets are required in Tacoma.

Still, no crackdowns are planned, according to Tacoma police spokeswoman Loretta Cool.

“No, police are not writing violations left and right,” she told us via email. “As with any citation/violation/arrest, it is officer discretion and available resource allocation.

“An officer probably could spend a whole shift writing those tickets and/or making traffic stops all day, but there are calls for help to respond to.”

It seems to us that wearing a helmet while zooming around on a motorized scooter would be a good idea, regardless of what the law says.

Oh, and get off our lawn.