New Information About Scooters

New Information About Scooters

It’s been a busy, busy time on the shared-scooter front:

• Lyft (scooters + bikes) is OUT
• Bird (scooters + bikes) is IN
• We met with Bird
• We met with Lime
• Artificial Intelligence is coming to scooters
• Denver still hasn’t fixed the bike lane signs

In December, scooter company Bird assumed all of Lyft’s dockless scooter and e-bike services in Denver. UpDoNA’s scooter subcommittee members met via Zoom with Bird representatives. We stressed the need for improved pedestrian safety and clearer communication of scooter regulations to users. We learned that Bird will be field testing several sidewalk detection and parking identification techniques in Denver, likely during the first quarter of 2025. Bird intends to use artificial intelligence programs to assist in that endeavor. The Bird representatives also described their enforcement techniques: the offending user gets (1) a warning, then (2) a warning + $10 fine, then (3) suspension from the app. Bird, like Lime, also has boots on the ground during Denver’s big events (e.g., concerts, games) in an effort to keep the scooter chaos controlled. In a related development, subcommittee members are hoping to provide feedback on education materials that will be distributed by Denver to hotels as a means of educating inexperienced tourists on the proper use of scooters. The materials will stress three key points: do not ride on sidewalks, park the scooter properly at the end of the trip, and follow the rules of the road.

In our meeting via Zoom with scooter company Lime, we learned it has increased its audits of the photos users submit at the end of a trip in order to see if the scooter has been properly parked, which is one of the two most common complaints about shared scooters. Since June 2023, Lime has issued 8,600+ warnings – and nearly 200 fines — for improper parking in Denver. Lime has applied to Denver for permits to create 150 new scooter parking locations (“corrals”) and has installed 75 or so in the past three months. Each corral will typically accommodate 6 scooters and 12 bikes. Until there are enough corrals in place, it’s not practical to require every rider to park the scooter in a corral instead of abandoning on the sidewalk. Lime will conduct a pilot program for mandatory corral parking in Denver’s central business district this Spring, in hopes of implementing the requirement this Summer in downtown’s densest spots. 

The other common complaint about shared scooters is riding on the sidewalks instead of the bike lanes and streets. On that front, Lime touted their technology solutions and stated that Lime is working with Denver officials to introduce sidewalk detection technology to their app. It’s already in use in some other cities, where it’s been found to be effective some of the time. In Chicago, for example, Lime’s data indicates that when the scooter emits a beeping noise because it has detected that the driver is riding on a sidewalk, the rider will get off the sidewalk, unless the urban design makes it dangerous to do so. Lime reps stated that here in Denver, sidewalk detection technology is long overdue and probably should have started last year.

Something else we took away from our meeting with Lime: some other cities really hold the scooter companies’ feet to the fire with a combination of the licensing contract, governing ordinances (laws), and administrative rules. Seattle, for example, updates their administrative rules every year. To date, Denver has relied only on the 2021 licensing contract, which is likely one of the reasons that other cities have better policies and technologies than Denver does. We know that our councilman, Chris Hinds, is working on scooter company reforms and I would hope that governing ordinances and administrative rules are part of the solution. 

Both Bird and Lime have fresh new faces working in Denver who seem to be earnest and enthusiastic. I’m hoping they’ll also be effective.

OTHER TIDBITS

• Denver scooter usage breakdown: 25% Central Business District, 75% Elsewhere
• In 2024, Lime provided approximately 5,000,000 trips in Denver, essentially twice as many as the year before
• On average, there are 10,100 scooter trips per day in Denver; there’s been more than 21,000,000 since the program began
• Denver received 2,500+ responses to its recent online scooter survey, with approximately 500 of them from residents living here in the 80202 zip code
• A DOTI representative is eliminating the word “micromobility” from his communications – presumably because it sounds pretentious, among other things – and adopting instead “shared scooters” and “shared bikes”
• Per Lime, Denver is the only place that offers unlimited free rides for low-income riders. Since 2023, that has accounted for approximately 2,500,000 trips – nearly 12% of all trips per my calculations
• One year and 12 days after submitting an online inquiry to the City of Denver regarding changing the “Bike Lane” signs to “Bike + Scooter Lane” signs, David Kurth received a very noncommittal response

Thumbnail attribution – David Kurth