Insurance required for motor assisted scooters with pedals removed: B.C. court

A British Columbia judge has dismissed appeals by a scooter rider convicted of driving without a licence or insurance, but suggests that provincial rules governing motor assisted cycles (MACs) could benefit from a review.

British Columbia’s Motor Vehicle Act (MVA) marks out the dividing lines between cycles that do or do not need registration, insurance and a licensed operator. “One of those essential markers for a MAC [is] pedals or hand cranks attached to the cycle and usable for their intended purposes,” Supreme Court of British Columbia Justice Neill Brown writes in R. v. Rei.

Raymond Rei was appealing four convictions under the MVA related to separate days in 2011. Two convictions were for operating a motor vehicle on a highway without a driver’s licence. Two others were for operating a motor vehicle on a highway without insurance, notes the July 13, 2012 ruling.

“The cycle Mr. Rei was riding on both days looks like a light scooter with bike-style pedals attached,” the court notes.

Included in the definition of MAC is a device “to which pedals or hand cranks are attached that will allow for the cycle to be propelled by human power.” Further, a MAC motor must turn off or disengage if the operator stops pedalling, an accelerator controller is released or a brake is applied.

Rei said he had removed the scooter’s pedals because, being too low, they would scrape the pavement when turning a corner. He reports falling several times.

Brown determined that once Rei removed the pedals, he had also “removed any effective way for him to propel the scooter himself, and it no longer fell within the class of a MAC.”

Rei’s cycle corresponds to the definition of a MAC except in two significant ways: its pedals had been detached and, without a pedal to push, “there is no way to stop the motor from running,” the ruling states.

“Given the possible validity of safety concerns relating to pedal placement, the increasing numbers of scooters of various kinds travelling public roads in B.C. communities and the fact there appears to be some uncertainty surrounding the legal definition of MACs, a review could benefit the public, and the operators of MACs in particular,” Brown writes.