George Jetson at the Legislature? Dallas Senator Moves to Regulate E-scooters

AUSTIN -- Royce West doesn’t look like your typical earbud-wearing scenester, bravely rolling alongside cars in traffic on one of the rental scooters spread in Texas cities including Lubbock, Dallas and San Antonio.The courtly state senator concedes he’s not ventured such a ride.But the Democrat, a Dallas lawyer, says a stand-up scooter accident led him to write legislation now awaiting Texas Senate consideration to cement basic electric scooter regulations into law while leaving room for cities and counties to get tougher.“I don’t think that the Legislature should be overly prescriptive,” West said, “but at least have some ground rules.”“I’ll tell you what got this started. I saw two people on a scooter and they crashed out, in Austin,” West said. “Those scooters weren’t made for” more than a rider at a time.  Continue reading...