Scooter Committee Continues to Work for Safer Sidewalks

In this Issue:

• Riders are frequenting hospitals and requiring surgery
• Another Meeting with Lime and Bird and Councilman Hines
• Denver still hasn’t fixed the bike lane signs
• Signs of hope
• Things we’d like to see go away

Scooter riders are frequenting hospitals and requiring surgery:  A recently-aired story on the local news focused on the injuries to scooter riders that our hospitals are treating – and some of them are gruesome. Denver Health’s orthopedic surgeon Dr. Lauder partnered with UC Health School of Medicine to conduct a survey/study. Highlights of the story include:

— Out of 200 scooter injuries, nearly 100 of them required surgery

— There are approximately 66 hit-and-run, car-versus-scooter accidents each year

— A rider who hit a pothole and now is wheelchair-bound urges action

“Now is the time to address these injuries as a public health issue” – Dr. Lauder

Denver Doctors, Residents Warn of Frequent Injuries from Popular e-Scooters

via CBS Colorado.  Watch the entire story here:  https://youtu.be/GwXqNPOJMEY

This information is consistent with what the Scooter Subcommittee learned at February’s meeting:  over the course of 18 months, Denver Health treated an average of 4 riders per day for scooter injuries – due either to run-ins with other vehicles, or because the rider fell of the scooter (e.g., hitting a pothole) – more crashes resulted from the latter than the former, partly because scooters are cheap and their wheels are small. Scooter company officials were quick to emphasize that 99% of all scooter trips end without injuries.

It’s worth noting that these injury numbers would plummet if scooters were banned from the busy streets of Downtown Denver. 

Another Meeting with Lime and Bird and Councilman Hines:  

In February, the UpDoNA Scooter Subcommittee hosted representatives of the two scooter companies with operations in Denver:  Lime and Bird (successor to Lyft), along with LoDoNA’s new head of its Safety Committee, and a representative from the Mayor’s Office of Bicycle Advisory Committee. In the meeting, government officials, scooter company executives/advocates, and concerned citizens, spoke frankly and vented frustrations. UpDoNA members are invited to attend the next meeting (April 2025).

It’s always interesting when Councilman Chris Hinds (who represents Downtown Denver, among other places) attends one of UpDoNA’s scooter meetings, because the representatives from the scooter companies are sensitive to his presence and his statements – probably because Councilman Hines is determined to have City Council pass regulatory ordinances that govern scooter companies, the details of which have yet to be seen. Councilman Hinds lauded Chicago’s efforts at making scooter use safer for everyone, including:

• Requiring that scooters be parked ONLY in corrals at the end of the trip
• Having ordinances and administrative rules governing the scooter companies
• Having effective education for scooter riders
• Using technology to limit scooter use at certain busy areas (Clark St. + North Halstead St.), based upon factors like the time of day and the specific day of the week

It’s worth noting that other cities are getting safety programs and technologies from the scooter companies well ahead of Denver, even though Denver is one of the nation’s top cities for scooter usage (we’re told it’s second only to the District of Columbia). Let’s hope the new and earnest Lime and Bird representatives bring change to Denver’s programs.

The neighborhood associations offered to assist Councilman Hinds on the rider-education front, because of our unique position of deploying ‘boots on the ground’ in Downtown Denver. Examples included:

• Distributing safety literature to hotels in an effort to reach out-of-town visitors, many of whom have never ridden a scooter
• Working with the operators of the many digital signs and kiosks in the downtown area in order to get scooter-rider educational advertising displayed (including on the 16th Street Mall)
• More educational efforts by the scooter company staff at big downtown events and big arenas (Ball Arena, McGregor Square)
• Creating an education blitz in the Spring to coincide with the reopening of the 16th Street Mall, with participation by UpDoNA, LoDoNA, the Downtown Denver Partnership, the Mayor’s office, Bird, and Lime

Denver still hasn’t fixed the bike lane signs: One of the reasons riders don’t drive their scooters in the bike lanes where the law requires, is because Denver has installed bike-lane signs that say BIKES ONLY. UpDoNA representatives have asked the city to fix this problem for over a year. However, the Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure has still not corrected the problem, instead recommending that we call 311 to report issues with signs. Downtown Denver residents could, if they chose to, report each bike lane sign one-by-one-by one.

Signs of hope: Optimists will find solace in knowing that there are signs of hope on the horizon:

• Denver will be seeking proposals very soon from many scooter companies who want to operate in Denver, so a lot of the problems and complaints can be addressed at that time in those new contracts
• Denver City Council will consider new ordinances to govern scooter companies, and establish a system of administrative rules which get revised every year to correct persistent problems
• The companies are building better and sturdier scooters which should lead to fewer serious injuries
• GPS technology is becoming more precise and can assist in determining which areas of Downtown Denver have the most scooter injuries, pedestrian injuries, and scooters left on sidewalks, blocking pedestrians and people in wheelchairs
• At some point, Downtown Denver will have new signage to guide scooter riders and hopefully keep them off the sidewalks
• A pilot study of the new technologies will be conducted by the scooter companies and Denver representatives in the Union Station area this Spring. It may also include a requirement that the rider park the scooter only in a corral at the end of the trip. The outcome of that pilot study will inform improvements in other areas of Downtown Denver