GMI
By MAC McLEAN
Register & Bee staff writer
Saturday, January 22, 2005
RICHMOND, Va. - A moped safety bill originally sponsored by Fairfax Sen. Linda Puller appeared on the Senate floor this week, and if it had passed, the bill would have come into direct conflict with Danville’s new moped safety law.
“It was an issue the city felt needed to be addressed locally,” Danville assistant city manager Todd Yeatts said about the city’s new moped law, which will go into effect on March 1.
State officials are also trying to tackle the issue.
“They are just proliferating so fast,” said Newport News Sen. Martin Williams, who chairs the Senate Committee on Transportation.
Williams said that there are several bills in his committee that deal with various aspects of moped regulation, from helmet laws to the definition of a moped.
Puller’s bill was the first to make it on the Senate floor, and when it did, it carried a Committee amendment that prohibited local governments from charging any fee related to the purchase of a moped.
This would have come into direct conflict with Danville’s law, which requires moped operators to pay the city treasurer $25 to register their vehicle.
“Everything we did was allowed by state law,” Yeatts said.
Yeatts explained that the same statute that allows a local government to charge a registration fee for a bicycle allows that government to charge for a moped.
The amendment barring licensing fees would have changed the state statute that involves moped safety regulation, such as helmet laws.
“It affects a lot more cities than Danville,” Yeatts said, adding that Charlottesville also charges a moped registration fee.
Yeatts said he had not heard of the licensing fee amendment until it reached the Senate floor.
“I don’t know if it’s set in stone or not,” he said.
As of right now, the licensing fee amendment is dead. Once the Senate received Puller’s bill on Tuesday, it rejected the transportation committee’s amendment.
That bill, along with the several other proposed moped bills, now awaits discussion in a newly formed Moped Subcommittee.
“We just want to put them all together into one package,” Williams said.
Registration fees, along with helmet laws and other safety concerns, are just one of the many issues that Williams said the Moped Subcommittee will debate.
“There is even a bill dealing with what we call it,” he said, referring to legislation sponsored by Winchester Sen. Russell Potts.
Potts’ bill would consider a moped a motorcycle when it is operated on a state highway. If the bill is passed, moped operators would not only have to wear a helmet, but they would need a special motorcycle license, license plates and insurance.