Moped rentals on Martha’s Vineyard are clearly headed in the direction of the heath hen. And the Oak Bluffs selectmen deserve some credit for ushering them toward extinction.

If the practice was ever a good idea, it has long since outlived its suitability on narrow Island roads now clogged with cars all summer long.

The number of dealers who rent mopeds has already dwindled. Public opinion is running more strongly against them than at any time in recent history. When it’s all over and the last dealer hangs up his license, some limited business interests will suffer, but that’s a small price to pay when balanced against public safety concerns and the suffering that has already taken place from the hundreds of moped accidents the Island has seen through the years. Donald Gregory, the longtime family owner of Sun‘N’Fun in Oak Bluffs, recognized this when he traded in his license to rent forty mopeds for an equivalent number of car rental licenses late last year.

Citing safety concerns, the Oak Bluffs selectmen have not yet renewed the annual licenses for the last three moped rental dealers in town because the dealers are unable to comply with a requirement that they have a test track for training new drivers on the premises at their place of business. Represented by a single attorney, the three dealers came before the selectmen this week to formally request waivers to the requirement. The dealers presented an alternative plan that would allow drivers of rental mopeds to take a test drive on town streets. The selectman found that was inadequate and the waiver request was denied. And with Memorial Day two weeks away, King’s, Ride On and Island Hoppers remain shuttered.

The test track requirement has been on the books for years but never enforced until now. The selectmen have made it clear that they are denying the waivers, not the licenses, and that the door remains open for the dealers to come back with a new plan to satisfy the requirement.

The dealers may do that or they may go to court. But there is a third alternative: take a page from Mr. Gregory’s book and see the handwriting that’s on the wall and give up the licenses.

There is no question about how the majority of the Island feels. An opinion poll conducted by the Gazette in February found overwhelming support for banning moped rentals among summer and year-round residents alike. The response to a nonbinding question at the annual town meetings this year was equally overwhelming.

For decades Islanders have adopted a grin-and-bear-it approach as they navigated narrow sandy roads shared by unsteady day-trippers on mopeds, out for some fun on a summer day. Fun often turned to tragedy, as first responders and emergency room doctors can readily attest, having seen more than their share of the grisly side of the moped rental problem. The lucky rental riders who had accidents escaped with a bad road rash. Others have lost limbs and also lives along the way. Survivors of moped accidents and their families and loved ones know that the physical toll is one thing, the psychological toll far harder to measure.

The Vineyard has had enough. Phasing out rental mopeds for good is a lasting legacy we can create for our children and grandchildren.