Motor Glide Safety & Regulation

Researching the Motor Glide story in newspaper accounts revealed an interesting side-story. When Foster commercialized scooters in 1936, the states and localities in the US did not have any rules regarding motorized scooters. Were scooters like bicycles, and largely unregulated? Or were they subject to the same rules as cars and motorcycles?

This turned out to be a very big issue. Kids, especially boys, were a prime target for scooter dealers. The first commercial scooter went to Freddie Bartholomew, a child actor, for example. And many kids, even as young as 3 years old, were riding scooters in the mid-1930s. Foster, Cushman, and the others would sell a lot more scooters if kids could ride the scooters without a driver's license (and the age level that the license required).

Scooter accidents started happening almost immediately after Foster started selling Motor Glides, of course. Some of these accidents hit the newspapers, and it didn't take long for state and local governing agencies to reach the obvious conclusion - scooters are more like a motorcycle than a bicycle, so scooters should be regulated like a motorcycle (or a car), with driver's licenses required.

We suspect the growing regulation of scooters, and the growing number of accident related newspaper accounts, ate very significantly into Foster's early scooter sale projects.

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1930s Newspaper Accounts - Safety

Salsbury advertised the safety features of the Motor Glide - like "Can't exceed the speed limit but can keep up with traffic." Dealers pushed the safety aspects of the Motor Glide even further, with some calling it "absolutely safe."

Reality was somewhat different, however. With relatively small tires, a Motor Glide was especially prone to tossing the owner off the scooter when the front tire hit a big pothole or crevice in the road. And the small size of the Motor Glide made it difficult for drivers of cars to see the scooter when pulling out of a parking space or changing lanes. Accidents happened, some of them quite bad, as the sampling of newspaper accounts below shows.

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    Singer Hurt in Scooter Accident

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    MGM Banned Scooters from the Studio after Several Accidents Involving Actors

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    Three High School Seniors Hurt When Their Motor Glides Collided

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    Broken Ankle When Rider Lost Control

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    Woman Hurt on Rented Scooter When She Went too Fast and Lost Control

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    Broken Elbow - Motor Glide Crashed Into Curb

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    Motor Glide Fatality

1930s Newspaper Accounts - Regulation

The states were still sorting out whether and how to license the driving of motor vehicles when Motor Glides hit the market in the mid-1930s. Not all states licensed drivers, and not many people were licensed in states that did require a driver's licensed. Thus, many Motor Glide riders were unlicensed, and the Motor Glide rental places often rented scooters to unlicensed kids and adults. But the scooter makers likely lost many sales as the states declared that scooters were like cars and motorcycles, and required riders to have a driver's license. Boys under the age of 16 were a very big market for scooters, and sales of scooters to underage boys likely went down VERY significantly as the states adopted minimum age requirements to get a license.

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    Roscoe Letter to Foster re: Denver Thinks Motor Glides are Dangerous

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    Lincoln Nebraska Police Department Says Motor Glides are Vehicles and Drivers Must be at Least 16 Years Old

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    Another Lincoln Nebraska Article

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    Springfield Illinois Police Chief says Scooter Riders Need a Driver's License

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