At almost any time of day, it’s common to see children and adults alike gliding down Moundridge’s streets on electric scooters or battery-powered bicycles.
The technology has arrived quietly, yet it has inspired an audible discussion, which is why electronic conveyance—or, micromobility—devices were a hot topic during the July 13 Moundridge City Council meeting.
“They’re here to stay,” Moundridge resident Faith Fields said during the meeting. “Something has to be done.”
Community members became vocal about the issue after the Moundridge Police Department made a June 10 Facebook Page post saying, in part, “We would like to respectfully remind parents and guardians that City of Moundridge Ordinance 14-405 prohibits the operation of motorized scooters on the streets, roads, and alleys within the city limits.”
Various residents voiced their thoughts in the comments of the Facebook post.
Some appeared to support the PD’s post and encouraged safety, while others questioned the viability of the law due to inadequate sidewalk access. Additionally, some questioned if the ordinance needed to be changed in some way, such as creating rules that allow individuals above a certain age to ride them in the streets, and others advocated for either bike lanes to be added to the streets or for an increase in safe riding education for all ages.
Overall, the emphasis was to keep people safe and not see people penalized through fines or other means in addition to enforcing current traffic laws for motorized vehicles that aren’t e-scooters or bicycles.
Community member Jason Jordan also attended the July 13 meeting after using Facebook to urge other residents to show up and make their voices heard.
Jordan advocated for teaching the town’s youth the rules of the road.
“Let’s try to educate our kids,” he said.
Moundridge Police Chief Jared Kaufman said he was open to educating the community’s children, saying that he had already spoken with Moundridge High School Principal Hilarie Hecox about planning such an effort.
“We have not written any tickets. I think it would be ridiculous to write a ticket for something they don’t know is illegal,” he said. “There has to be an educational piece first.”
Kaufman’s focus is to keep people safe and avoid having to report to the scene of an accident.
“We’re the ones who have to respond if a 6-year-old gets hit on a scooter,” he said. “I don’t want to deal with that. No one does.”
Leawood fourth grader Duke Ommert died Oct. 22, 2025, due to injuries sustained when a vehicle struck him while he was riding a scooter on Oct. 13, 2025, according to reporting from KSHB 41 out of Kansas City, Missouri.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission released a report on Oct. 17, 2023, that found “injuries associated with all micromobility devices increased nearly 21% in 2022 from 2021. Micromobility-related injuries have trended upward since 2017, increasing an estimated average 23% annually.”
Medical and academic researchers continue to investigate electric scooters and bicycles.
Mary Beth Howard, a pediatric emergency medicine physician and assistant professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, published research on this topic in the June 2026 issue of the academic journal Injury.
In a press release discussing her research, Howard suggested teenage boys are most likely to be hurt while riding e-scooters due to behavioral factors, such as taking more risks, and children account for more than 45% of all e-scooter-related injuries.
“Younger adolescents have less-developed motor skills, poorer judgment and limited experience with traffic and road safety, making them more susceptible to injuries,” she said.
The severity of such injuries depends on the nature of the accident an individual is involved in.
However, research published by the academic journal Nature found that accidents leading to emergency department care happened at a rate of 7.8 per 100,000 rides for e-scooters while bicycles saw a rate of 2.2 accidents leading to emergency department care per 100,000 rides, and e-scooter riders in an accident experienced head injuries 46% of time, largely due to those individuals only being 4% likely to have been wearing a helmet.
Howard Chang, emergency department physician at Ascension Via Christi in Wichita, echoed this sentiment in an interview with KWCH.
“We’re seeing patients with head injuries, orthopedic injuries like broken bones, broken clavicle, chest trauma,” he said. “Worst case scenario would be an intracranial hemorrhage, so that would be bleeding around the skull. And that can become life-threatening.”
Reiterating his desire to educate the community, Jordan said he wanted clarity on the rules because researching the city’s ordinance after purchasing electric dirt bikes revealed uncertainty about how some newer electric-powered vehicles fit within existing regulations.
Kaufman explained that electric scooters and pocket bikes are prohibited on city streets, while electric bicycles are allowed except on the state highway. Otherwise, the scooters are supposed to be on the sidewalks.
Research in the academic journal JAMA supports the need to keep e-scooters off the streets, suggesting “that safer riding infrastructure and rider practices are important to curtail the rise of micromobility injuries.”
Wearing protective gear such as helmets is also important, and remaining aware of one’s surroundings is key.
“We don’t really have too many issues with e-bikes for the most part. It’s scooters,” Kaufman said. “We don’t see a whole lot of them on the street. We do see them flying down the sidewalk at 20 miles an hour and go straight through an intersection without slowing down. To me, the sidewalk is just as dangerous as the street.”
Fields said using the sidewalks isn’t always an option because not all streets have them, and some of the sidewalks are in disrepair.
“So, the sidewalks aren’t safe,” she said. “The streets are just the safest place.”
Jordan agreed.
“Everything comes with a risk. We have to allow that. We can’t always watch our kids. You know, they’re not always going to pay attention and follow the laws, even if we set down ordinances,” he said. “We need to find a solution to this that works with our kids. I think education is the step.”
The prevalence of e-scooters and electric bicycles is spreading throughout the country, as is the number of accidents. Likewise, Kaufman said departments across Kansas are facing the same questions as Moundridge.
He said nearby communities have contacted him about Moundridge’s ordinance, while larger cities have adopted rules involving helmets, age requirements and speed limits.
An example of this is Overland Park and its police department’s increase in e-bike rules enforcement, as reported by Fox 4 KC.
“I think, honestly, we’re ahead of the curve,” Kaufman said. “Every city around is looking at what we can do to prevent some sort of accident.”
No action was taken July 13, but council members agreed the issue deserves additional study as alternative forms of transportation become more common and affordable. “As a community, we have to make a safe place for people to ride them,” Fields said.
