IN THIS ISSUE OF THE SCOOTER SUBCOMMITTEE UPDATE:
- More Menaces on Downtown Denver’s Sidewalks
- Little Hope for Better Signage
- More Cities Ban Scooters – is Denver next?
- Scooter Riders Love 16th Street (Mall)
- Progress is Made on the Next Scooter Company Contract
- Our Next Meeting
MORE MENACES. Time to vent again about the state of affairs on Downtown Denver’s sidewalks! Besides scooter riding on the sidewalks being tolerated for 5 years now, we have more motorized vehicles being operated on our sidewalks – bikes, gliders, and pedicabs. Yes, nowadays even the pedicabs are motorized. There’s been a noticeable uptick in motorized bikes lately, probably because Bird and Lime have introduced new bikes in Denver. You can expect to be dodging a new scooter/bike hybrid on our sidewalks as the scooter companies introduce gliders – sit-down scooters, more or less.
Come Summer 2026, we can expect conditions for pedestrians to be much, much worse as the City will require that the scooter companies’ fleets in Denver be comprised of no more than 50% scooters with the remaining 50% being these other big motorized vehicles! Pedicabs, gliders, and bikes are even more dangerous for pedestrians than scooters are, because of their size and weight. NO MOTORIZED VEHICLES BELONG ON DOWNTOWN DENVER’S SIDEWALKS! [end rant]
LITTLE HOPE FOR BETTER SIGNAGE FOR BIKE LANES AND 16TH STREET (MALL). Incorrect signage in Downtown Denver has been a topic of concern with UpDoNA for years. City representatives have offered vague responses or, sometimes, no response at all. We recently learned that staffing layoffs at the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure included the employee who would be critical in getting new signs done.
On the other hand, when a DOTI deputy manager addressed the Advisory Board in October, he said that the Department is working on this and making progress. He’s expressed optimism about getting the signs updated to indicate that scooters should use the bike lanes. UpDoNA subsequently sent an email inquiry to him in late November asking for a status update and a timetable for the new signage. You can view that email inquiry HERE. As of mid-December, there’s been no response.
UpDoNA’s David Kurth spoke during the public comment period of the Advisory Board’s meeting regarding DOTI’s Shared Scooter & Bike RFP, as well as scooters & bikes on 16th Street (Mall). You can review UpDoNA’s comments HERE.
Boulder and Ft. Collins have managed to tame scooter sidewalk riding, but for some reason, Denver can’t, or perhaps, can’t be bothered to.
DENVER
FORT COLLINS
MORE PLACES BAN SCOOTERS. In recent months, more cities worldwide have passed legislation outlawing shared scooters and bikes, because of injuries, illegal sidewalk riding, and sidewalk clutter from improperly-parked vehicles.
“While e-scooters may offer a green transport alternative, our experience has raised significant safety concerns. Residents and businesses have reported issues with reckless riding, especially in town centre areas, and the abandonment of scooters on [sidewalks] has created hazards.”
Joining cities like Paris, Madrid, Melbourne, and Montreal, these places have recently banned scooters: Pensacola, Florida and Basildon, Essex, UK and Prague, Czech Republic and Ramsey, NJ and Houston, TX (nighttime ban), among others.
Might Denver be the next place to ban electric scooters and bikes? NOT LIKELY. It may be that the only way to keep scooters off of downtown’s sidewalks is to outright ban them in the central business district like so many other municipalities – because we’ve gone 5 years with zero enforcement and incorrect signage and inadequate bike lane infrastructure. But, when recently asked if there was any discussion of a ban as City Council contemplated his proposed legislation, downtown’s council member Chris Hinds said “No.”
SCOOTER RIDERS LOVE 16TH STREET (MALL). Scooters are not supposed to operate on 16th Street (Mall) and, according to Denver, the street has been electronically geofenced so that if someone rides there, the scooter will come to a slow stop. But, it’s not working that way. In order to inform Denver that scooters are routinely driven on 16th Street, seven UpDoNA volunteers monitored the street for nearly 4.5 hours and took detailed notes. The results of that survey can be found HERE. As you’ll see, Lime’s scooters were viewed riding on 16th Street all the time and significantly more often than Bird, although it’s worth noting that Lime accounts for 70% of the shared scooter rides in Denver.
So, why is the technology failing? It’s complicated but sadly, makes some sense. First, scooters have to be allowed to cross 16th Street if they’re being operated on a cross street, such as Champa St. Second, the technology relies upon GPS signals which aren’t as reliable in the presence of all those tall office buildings. Finally, for geofencing to block a scooter from operating, the scooter cannot be in motion at the time. So, if a rider were to try to initiate a trip right there on 16th Street, the geofencing should be able to abort that trip. If, however, the rider begins the trip on another street and then turns onto 16th Street, their trip is not likely to be stopped by the geofencing. It’s a geofencing fail. However, should the Denver Police Department decide to enforce scooter laws someday, 16th Street would make an easy place to start. As you may know, police do not enforce scooter laws downtown and haven’t for the past 5 years. But, perhaps that could be an element of what Mayor Johnson calls an upcoming crackdown on “quality of life” crimes in the central business district. Read that portion of his State of the City address HERE (then click ‘Read the rest of the speech,’ then scroll to the highlighted portion). This crackdown was repeated by City representatives at UpDoNA’s Town Hall in mid- December, including the staff from the District Attorney’s office and Council member Sarah Paraday.
PROGRESS ON THE NEW SCOOTER CONTRACT. Denver has announced the three finalists in the process of determining the one or two companies that will become the exclusive providers of shared scooters and bikes in Denver beginning next year: Lime, Bird, and Veo. The process is now entering Phase 2, which has two parts that companies need to address: (1) the financial model and (2) the device demonstrations:
- The FINANCIAL MODEL details how much the companies will pay the City for the “privilege” of providing services. This, we hope, will be the source of funds for the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure to actually hire staff to assist with administering the program (providing that the Department is successful in keeping the funds from going into the City’s general fund and that those funds are not diverted to other of the Department’s programs).
- The DEVICE DEMONSTRATIONS will show whether the scooters can actually detect sidewalk riding and enforce parking compliance. In a pilot program which took place in a very limited area, the Department has seen some success in enforcing the requirement that a scooter rider must park only in a designated area (a ‘corral’) at the end of their trip. We are not aware of any pilot programs for the sidewalk-detection technology, but that will be part of the device demonstrations each company is providing for City representatives.
Lime and Bird are familiar to Denverites, but Veo would be a new provider here. You can see where the company currently deploys scooters HERE. We asked Gemini A.I. to scour the internet and uncover the experience of cities that allow Veo Micromobility to operate scooters. You can see those results HERE. Unsurprisingly, Veo presents many of the same issues as Lime and Bird, although notably, Veo actually works with cities to issue fines ($5–$10) to users who repeatedly park incorrectly.
i·ro·ny /ˈīrənē/
a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result
UPCOMING MEETING. The next meeting of UpDoNA’s Scooter Subcommittee will be held February 4, 2026 at Olive & Finch on 14th Street at the DCPA. Reach out to David Kurth if you want to be added to the mailing list. David_Kurth@msn.com
Thumbnail Photo Credit: Joseph Capello, Wewatta St. in Denver, CO
