The Scooter Subcommittee has been hard-at-work meeting with the City of Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI), the Denver Theatre District (DTD) and LoDoNA to collaborate on future projects related to e-scooter safety in 2023. Vanessa Lacayo from DOTI presented an upcoming education strategy that the City is perusing this year that will include a video campaign which will be initially launched during Opening Day at Coors Field with plans to expand it to other venues. The committee offered support to DOTI in this effort and offered support to help DOTI get some of their PSAs on local screens with the DTD. DOTI also provided an update on new signage for bike lanes that is being created at the City. These signs will be along bike lane routes and will clarify that bike lanes allow both bikes and scooters.
The committee also had a discussion with a representative from LoDoNA to brainstorm other ideas and to see what may or may not be working. Scooter-pedestrian conflicts and safety issues in the Lower Downtown area are more frequent from Thursday night through early Sunday morning versus those in the Upper Downtown area that are more spread out during the week. LoDoNA is stressing scooter riding rules must be enforced by the providers and City. UpDoNA is focusing on public service announcements and education, understanding that scooters play an important role in making Denver and downtown a more multimodal city. We look forward to continuing to work with and collaborating with LoDoNA.
Lastly, the committee will be working on a new photograph session for our PSAs that will increase diversity and inclusivity. The DTD has agreed to continue airing the PSAs on digital signs that they control throughout downtown with frequency depending on the month and other events that may require more airtime. The intent of the PSAs is to bring awareness to residents and visitors regarding the use of e-scooters and discouraging their use on sidewalks where they are not safe and therefore not allowed.
