LINK is a fun, eco-friendly way to scoot around Hartford
Have you LINK-ed yet?
If you have ridden a LINK electric scooter in Hartford, you are in a lot of company, as the operator says the rental program logged some 250,000 trips in the year since it was launched here.
Further, the Superpedestrian LINK scooters here have traveled more than 400,000 miles in that time, according to the company.
That’s a lot of traveling in a city that encompasses only about 18 square miles, and the company has noted this is among the highest riderships in the nation.
For a service that is not free and takes some balance — and should never be done without a helmet — our hat is off to those in the city who want to reduce their carbon footprint as well as safely get to where they need to go in Hartford.
Launched in late April last year with 250 silver and bright yellow scooters that have an internal GPS system, the scooters have been rolled out around Hartford, logging more than 17,000 rides in the first month, according to the company.
According to the city, the
LINK scooters are engineered and operated by Superpedestrian, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based “robotics firm that was spun out of MIT in 2013, and the city partnered with the Capitol Region Council of Governments to offer the electric scooter system at no cost to the city. The no-cost-to-the-city part is key as it shows the appeal of bringing a new service here, as well as not adding to the very high tax rate city residents pay.
The company also has a program through which residents who receive state, local or federal assistance can qualify for a 70% discount.
There were some bumps, including that LINK scooters were seen traveling on I-84 near downtown Hartford last year. The company said it then installed geofence protections on the scooters to prevent them from operating on the highway.
“We take street safety extremely seriously — both for riders and all other community members,” Paul Steely White, director of development and public affairs at Superpedestrian, said at the time.
The geofencing is designed to keep the scooters away from places they should not go. They come to a slow stop if they approach such an area, according to the company.
The company also sought to increase safety late last year when it reduced top speeds for first-time riders for the duration of their first ride. That meant first-time riders have a maximum initial ride speed of 8 mph, not the usual 15 mph. That was a smart move; 15 mph is too fast for the inexperienced.
An important element is that electric scooter riders are required to follow the rules of the road, including operating on the road, riding with traffic, and following traffic signs, signals and regulations. Riders who do not do so could be ticketed.
But the concept is readily available to those of us who love the phrase “there’s an app for that” as riders can download the Superpedestrian mobile app and then use the map to find the nearest available scooter.
Riders then scan the scooter’s QR code to begin. Rides are $1 to unlock a scooter and then 36 cents per minute.
Using the Uber app (which had to be downloaded to get this estimate) to gauge about how much it would cost for a 4 ½-mile Uber ride in Hartford, it came up with an estimated $9.90 for a regular ride and up to $13.45 for an “XL” ride in a larger vehicle. Google maps estimated that for the fictitious trip, using Asylum Avenue was the shortest route, and it would take about 14 minutes in light traffic.
Based on the e-scooters rates, users would spend about $8.20 for a 20-minute ride, more if that same trip took longer. And, of course, there’s no top on the e-scooters in case of rain or other inclement weather.
But bad weather — or at least cold weather — apparently was not an impediment for intrepid Hartford riders: Data recently supplied by the company showed that more than 100,000 of the miles to date were traveled during the winter months.
So kudos to those riding safely — and “safely” is a key word here — in this new mode of travel that will cut the city’s carbon footprint.