Lancaster City Council is considering extending the ban on bicycles and skateboards to more downtown sidewalks.

Here's another idea: add motorized wheelchairs to the list.

Or, probably more realistically, regulate the speed of wheelchairs on sidewalks.

If you haven't experienced the treat of jumping out of the way of a motorized wheelchair tooling along directly at you or behind you, you haven't spent much time walking around downtown Lancaster or any other city.

You don't have to worry about courteous wheelchair riders, who keep their speed down to a walking pace and seek to avoid hitting pedestrians or a loose brick that could tip over their conveyances.

It's the hotrodders — they're called "Hell's grannies" in England — who think they own the sidewalks and expect everyone else to get out of the way.

Older wheelchairs ran at a top speed of about 4 mph, which is not much faster than the average pedestrian walks. But newer versions can achieve 8 or even 10 mph. Some users push the limit.

That's way too fast on a busy urban sidewalk.

Efforts to slow down wheelchairs are not always appreciated. Valley College in Los Angeles set a speed limit of 4 mph on its campus several years ago and the disabled community went ballistic.

Alternatively, Kennewick, Wash., requires motorized wheelchairs to abandon the sidewalk and use the street if the speed limit is under 30 mph. Kennewick is a little larger than Lancaster City.

But running a wheelchair up West King Street hill while cars stall behind it? Not a good idea.

Restricting the speed of wheelchairs on sidewalks sounds like a safer plan for all concerned.

Of course, motorized wheelchair users could slow down on their own. Sensible wheelchairers — fortunately, that's the majority — already do that.


Dollar bills are indigestible


Lois Duling, of East Lampeter Township, has received a timely e-mail  from a friend in England.

"Dear Lois: I read such a lovely thing about the Amish people in a travel section of my newspaper the other day," it began.

"How peaceful and charming they are — and what a wonderful job they do in the way they farm.

"These days, when food production is becoming so vital (we can't eat money, we now discover!), their way of caring for land is going to become a lesson to all who farm and maybe have not regarded the soil God gave us with enough care."


'We break for shoo-fy pie'?


"Have you noticed that both Tom Ridge and Ed Rendell pronounce Pennsylvania without the "l" in it?" asks New Era staff writer Jane Holahan. "They say 'Penns-i-vania.' Why is that?"

The Scribbler has no idea, Jane. Why do some people say "nucular"?

Jane continues: "I think governors, both past and present, both Republican and Democratic, should be able to pronounce the name of their state, don't you?"

Well, sure they should.

But the Scribbler is inclined toward leniency on this point because he lived for five years in a state that several governors have pronounced "Vaginya."


The artist known as 'Deem'


Steve Hofmann, of Lancaster Township, says he knew members and friends of the Demuth family and they all pronounced Charles Demuth's name DEEE-muth. (See Scribbler column, Nov. 4.)

Also, he reminds, Demuth's nickname was "Deem."

Also, he opines, "De-MUTH is an ugly word."

Pronunciation aside, he notes, "I think it's kind of great that an artist of that caliber was one of us."


Jack Brubaker can be reached at jbrubaker@LNPnews.com or 291-8781. The Scribbler column appears Tuesdays and Fridays.