presence of scooters on the streets and sidewalks of Minneapolis. The
short history of the scooters is that they were apparently allowed to come
into our city for a kind of test run to see if they could become a viable
business. The public was not consulted before the vote, as far as I know.
Since the scooters' presence on city streets and sidewalks there have been
concerns expressed by the general public. A suit has been filed based on
the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990.
Based on the test run statistics there were quite a few complaints from
the general public about incidents ranging from scooters left on sidewalks
and lawns and scooter riders on the sidewalk. Yet the city seems poised
to again vote in favor of their presence, the input from the public
apparently not raising much concern among Council members.
A few days ago I went to the downtown library to see an informal
presentation on what the future looks like for transportation in Mpls. I
was dismayed to see on the storyboards an electric scooter. I asked a
person representing the city who was stationed there to take questions,
why scooters were still part of the plan, based on a lot of anecdotal
evidence, some statistics and an ADA lawsuit in the works. She had a
vague response that they had changes in mind to make the scooters more
palatable to the public. She mentioned that the city intends to require
the scooters to be docked, but I subsequently learned that they would be
required to be secured to a bike rack, municipal sign post, or in a
designated scooter parking space. I have serious concerns about the
ability to enforce these regulations on abusers, in particular on those
who ride at speed (15 mph) on the sidewalks.
That scooters were allowed to be tested in Minneapolis without consulting
those who live here is worrisome. It feels like the entrepreneurial
spirit has gone amok. Surely some of the people on the Council had an
idea of problems that might come up with scooters given free rein in our
city. I am wondering how interested or concerned our City Council is with
the people who actually live and work in the city, and whose safety should
be important to them. In researching one company, I discovered that the
Lime scooters take a rather casual attitude toward safety of their
vehicles, that for instance they are able to detect when a rider had spent
50% or more of a trip using a sidewalk. The company would then send them
a message that they had noticed the rider had spent more than 50% of a
trip on the sidewalk and "To be considerate to others please ride on the
street in the future."
Another concern is a matter of great importance, the reduction of use of
fossil fuels. Yes, the scooters are electric, but the vehicles ("juicers")
that pick them up for refueling use fossil fuels. That, coupled with the
life span of the shared scooters being 1 to 5 months, makes this mode of
transportation an environmental crime. I found these facts easily on the
internet.
How much thought and research was put into this by the Council? Why was
the public not engaged early on? Please let me know if I have possibly
missed something in this process.
Janet Nye
Phillips