E-bikes and e-scooters were here long before the city of Jamestown contracted with Bird scooters to bring a fleet of scooters to Jamestown’s streets.

The proliferation of these new modes of motorized transportation can be extraordinarily helpful for those who don’t have a car and don’t want to use either a taxi or the county’s limited public transportation system.

Unfortunately, we have all seen instances in which these motorized personal vehicles aren’t used safely. Late August saw a Jamestown man on an e-scooter fail to yield the right of way to a vehicle, get hit and end up in a hospital as the result of the accident. The onus is often on drivers to make sure unsafe e-bike and e-scooter riders aren’t injured when riding against the flow of traffic or when they weave in and out of traffic. Common sense should prevent some of these issues, but they persist.

Assemblyman Brian Cunningham, D-Brooklyn, has introduced A.7943 in the state Assembly to create training courses for operators of bicycles with electric assist and electric scooters as well as optional training courses for those riding traditional bicycles. It isn’t the first attempt to create some framework for e-bike and e-scooter use and it won’t be the last. Cunningham’s legislation would work for those who are buying their own e-bikes or e-scooters, but a training requirement for those using ride-share devices is likely difficult to enforce by local officials and, if a certificate has to be scanned before using a ride-share device, it will likely put the clamps on a burgeoning business.

It makes sense, in our opinion, for state lawmakers to consider stepping in to create training requirements for e-bike and e-scooter users, particularly if cities are going to partner with private companies to encourage their use as a transportation solution in congested downtown areas. No one wants to see preventable accidents. And there is precedent with training requirements before the use of personal watercraft.

The state has to be careful not to discourage the use of this emerging transportation sector while still making an effort to require some sort of training for its use.