MILWAUKEE — A man was spotted riding an electric scooter down the interstate in Milwaukee Thursday morning.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation followed the scooter using its cameras along I-94.
The scooter appears to be one of the Lime scooters, which are supposed to shut off when a rider enters restricted zones. The man was seen on several cameras including the camera at I-41 and Drexel Ave and Ryan Road.
TMJ4 monitored the cameras until the man exited the interstate on Ryan Road and rode out of a WisDOT camera's view.
"Traffic Management Center was watching him on the cameras but lost him about 13th and Ryan. Unfortunately, we were just finishing up with our roll call. Deputy was dispatched by the time he got down there we couldn’t locate him," said Sgt. Daniel Hansen with the Milwuakee County Sheriff's Office.
A pedestrian on the freeway can receive a $204 ticket.
Dockless scooters can travel up to 15 mph. The speed limit on I-94 is 70 mph.
"It's dangerous to them, but also to the people that may be driving by. They look over at him and then don't see the car stopping in front of them," Sgt. Hansen.
The scooter company LIME tells TMJ4 News the man has been banned from using the e-scooters in the future. According to LIME's statement:
This rider behavior is as rare as it is unacceptable. We have found and banned the rider and will continue our work in partnership with the city to encourage riding safely and respecting the law, which is what the vast majority of our riders do. Over 99.99% of our rides are completed without reported incident. Ridership in Milwaukee has been strong this year and our safety record has been as well.
Our team reached out to the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office to see if they had any information. Read their response below:
Hi folks, if you are receiving this email, you or your news outlet inquired about the subject line. Here’s what I know: it’s my understanding that a call came into 911 Dispatch at 7:40 AM reporting that a person had ridden a scooter onto southbound I-94 via the Rawson Avenue on-ramp. A deputy sheriff was dispatched from the Patrol Division substation at 7:42 AM and made his way to the reported locations of the scooter – from my understanding the rider exited the freeway at Drexel Ave., re-entered the freeway on the southbound Drexel on-ramp, continued south, exited the freeway again, at Ryan Road, traveled east on Ryan to 13th Street, turned south on 13th Street, and that’s where cameras lost track of him at about 7:56 AM. Ultimately, the dispatched deputy was unable to locate the individual, who, again, had exited the freeway prior to the deputy’s arrival in the vicinity. “Normal” patrols continued, and deputies have kept an eye out for this individual or anyone else engaging in illegal and/or dangerous movement on the freeway system.
Watch TMJ4's vertical video of the incident:
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