The Mayor of Milwaukee, as well as sheriff's officials, urge scooter riders to use "common sense" after three riders were busted for riding the scooters on Interstate 94.
The sheriff's office says three people were cited $204 each Monday after they rode Bird scooters onto the freeway just west of the Marquette Interchange.
The men were from Texas and were headed to the Harley Davidson Museum. They said their GPS led them on to the freeway. At one point they crossed three lanes of freeway speed traffic to get to the side of the road.
"Driving on the freeway with scooters is not allowable," said Milwaukee County Sheriff's Inspector Daniel Hughes. "It is illegal and we will take enforcement action. This was a situation that could have been catastrophic. It could have been a fatality easily by one person if not three."
Hughes said the department hoped this wouldn't happen, but weren't surprised that it did.
"It’s just a matter of what’s reasonable," he said. "Is it reasonable to have a scooter on a freeway when vehicles are going 60-65mph and a scooter is going less than 20mph?"
Milwaukee's Mayor Tom Barrett, who has had his doubts about the scooter program in the past, said riders need to use common sense.
"Who in god's name thinks it makes sense to ride a scooter an expressway? I don't care what the excuse is," he said. "We can’t guarantee they [riders] provide intelligence."
