During the spring of 2018, dockless, shareable electric scooters started to make headlines after a backlash in San Francisco, where residents claimed that people riding them were taking over bike lanes, littering the sidewalks with abandoned vehicles and menacing children and old people with their reckless behavior. San Francisco then banned the e-scooters pending the implementation of a new permitting process (though they are now coming back).
Scooters are back. Today, three months after ejecting them from the city, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency announced the two winners of its e-scooter pilot sweepstakes: Scoot and Skip. https://t.co/UEZE4LDI4q
— WIRED (@WIRED) August 30, 2018
Other cities are also trying to figure out the scooter fad. New York City is currently drafting a bill to allow the scooters, though there is no clear deadline for the legislation. And in Portland, Oregon, the Bureau of Transportation launched its own scooter share pilot program. Outside Online decided to examine Portland’s experience to answer the question of whether or not scooters will help or hurt cities.
In Portland, the pilot program has a combined 2,363 electric scooters on the streets, coming from three companies: Bird, Skip, and Lime. Outside Online writes that in their opinion, scooters will never replace bikes, because these models have a top speed of only 15 mph, which means you can’t accelerate out of traffic. Plus, because of their low power, they’re only suited to flat terrain. But, the magazine writes, for “covering a mile or two quickly, they’re absolutely ideal.”
? Hey Portland! It’s time for your weekly #scootpdx data report:
Total number of trips: 178,233
Total distance ridden: 270,027.8 miles
Average trip length: 1.5 miles
Total number of scooters in service since 8/15/18: 2,049
(Figures are for 7/25-8/29, except where noted.)— Portland Bureau of Transportation (@PBOTinfo) August 30, 2018
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