To the editor:

They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, and the front photo on last week’s Barrington Times confirms that. Three young boys on their motorized scooters spread clear across the entire road. 

Having raised two boys, I fully understand a parent’s want for them to be playing outside instead of glued to a screen. All outdoor equipment with wheels gives children and parents alike, a sense of independence and freedom. However, having driven behind a group of nine young people on their motorized scooters, doing wheelies and weaving back and forth in front of me at the same speed I am driving on Rumstick Road, I also understand why some might sense a “growing animosity against the young e-scooter riders”.

Motorized vehicles belong on roads, not sidewalks and not weaving around in parking lots or in roadways. There is a reason young drivers must be a certain age, be taught rules of the road and take an exam before receiving a license to drive a car. Children on motorized bikes/scooters/skateboards etc. are not being taught how to occupy the road safely with 2+ ton steel vehicles and there will be a multitude of tragic accidents as a result. 

That the young boy in the article was given a motorized scooter because he couldn’t keep up with his friends on his bicycle, pretty much says it all.

As the song goes, parents teach your children well.

Kate Weymouth

Barrington