Or do you consider them a vehicle?
Should they stay on the sidewalk or in the street?
Depends, if it’s something that basically is designed to move at human motive rate (walking, running) or is it capable of superhuman speed and how is it being used.
I would consider them a pedestrian. The motor in the chair is a replacement for walking or wheeling.
Walking,jogging,grocery shopping… Had someone ask me why I wasn’t in the street,like a bicycle…:smack:
Sidewalk…when possible.
Within very short walking (or power-chairing) distance of where I live, there are places where the sidewalk is not continuous, and a chair (or someone on foot) mustgo out into the street. I don’t like this at all! Sidewalks should be continuous and reach everywhere.
(Worse, at least one of the places I’m thinking of has a high curb, so someone in a chair would have a hell of a time getting down to the street surface. This is morally intolerable!)
Vehicles are forbidden in many places that are frequented by pedestrians. Places like outdoor pedestrian shopping malls, some public gardens, nature trails, and so forth. They often have explicit signs posted saying “No motor vehicles” or “Pedestrians only”.
Some years ago, one occasionally would see recreational-outrage pieces in the news about cops getting a bug up their ass and ticketing power wheel chair users in places like that.
I believe it is more common now, that States have explicit laws in their vehicle codes, specifically saying that wheel chairs, including powered ones, are permitted wherever pedestrians are.
Does it have a slow moving vehicle placard on the rear? Lights? I think if there’s a sidewalk available, it better be using it.
So not only are you allowed to use the sidewalk, you’re probably required to when there is one.