Texas tourists caught riding e-scooters on highway blame their GPS, Wisconsin cops say

Three Texas tourists visiting Wisconsin caught the e-scooter blues on Monday when they were fined for riding on the highway. They blamed their GPS, police say.

A concerned citizen called 911 after seeing the scooter-riders chugging down Interstate 94 in Milwaukee, the Journal-Sentinel reported.

Surveillance video from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation shows the trio riding on what appears to be the shoulder of the road before coming to a stop and moving into the grass off the shoulder.

‘Bro, what are you doing?’ Watch scooter weave across 5 lanes of busy Texas interstate

They told police their GPS led them astray.

“They did say that their GPS was showing that route for them to go. They were trying to get to the Harley Davidson Museum,” a spokesman for the police department said in a video posted to Facebook. “GPS gives you the most direct route, it doesn’t always give you the best route. And when you’re on a scooter you have to take that into account.”

Police say the riders made their best efforts to get out of the 50 mph traffic, crossing three lanes to get to the side of the road. When they arrived on the scene, officers used cruisers to safely remove the riders and scooters from the area, police say.

Each rider was fined $204 for operating a moped/cycle on the highway, which is prohibited, police say.

Officials emphasized that the highway is no place for an e-scooter.

“It’s just a matter of what’s reasonable. Is it reasonable to have a scooter on a freeway when vehicles are going 60, 65 mph and scooters are doing less than 20,” the spokesman asked, adding that there are signs prohibiting pedestrians, which he says includes scooter riders, from entering on-ramps.

This story was originally published August 21, 2019 at 7:47 AM with the headline "Texas tourists caught riding e-scooters on highway blame their GPS, Wisconsin cops say."