[A]fter lawmakers thought they had finished hammering out agreements on this year’s transportation spending package, an 11th hour push to require participants in an electric scooter pilot program to wear helmets stalled negotiations.
Senators tacked the pilot program program onto the transportation bill, H.529, last week, which could make fleets of electric scooters available on the streets of Montpelier and Burlington in the coming months — if a business is interested in launching a pilot.
But as a deal on the transportation bill was about to be reached Friday morning, Rep. Curt McCormack, D-Burlington, chair of the House Transportation Committee, introduced a requirement for scooter riders to wear helmets.
The provision has delayed transportation bill talks, with senators including Sen. Dick Mazza, D-Grand Isle, the chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, saying helmets are a non-starter.
“We had agreed on everything and they brought this up last minute. Now they come up with the helmets, I have no idea where that came from,” Mazza said. “We don’t mandate them on bicycles. So it’s a whole big issue to discuss. We’re not going to discuss it the day before adjournment here.”
But McCormack says the pilot program has raised roadway safety concerns.
“It’s only a four month pilot project, and wouldn’t it be a real shame if somebody got hurt?” he said.
Before McCormack proposed the helmet provision, representatives and senators reached agreement on other disputes including whether to exempt older vehicles from emissions inspections.
Exempting some vehicles has been a priority for senators seeking to reduce repair costs for low-income Vermonters. Under the current legislation, cars older than 16 years would no longer be required to meet emissions inspection standards.
McCormack had been pushing to eliminate any emissions exemptions, citing concerns that a rollback of inspection standards would increase pollution across the state.
But after the Senate agreed to push back the exemption from cars that are 15 years or older to cars 16 years or older, the House agreed to the bill.
McCormack also dropped one of his other transportation bill priorities: a measure that would give police the authority to pull drivers over for not wearing seat belts.
“We gave on that,” McCormack said.
The Senate strongly opposed over civil rights concerns. In other states, seat belt related stops have been used “disproportionately to stop people of color relative to white drivers,” Sen President Pro Tem Tim Ashe, D/P-Chittenden, said earlier this month.
McCormack on Friday recommended that the Senate take the scooter pilot program out of the transportation bill altogether, but senators opposed the idea.
It’s was unclear Friday afternoon when transportation bill talks will continue.
