Electric scooters might return, with more rules this time
Less than two weeks after taking electric scooters off Miami’s downtown streets, the city could quickly bring them back with more rules and restrictions.
Mayor Francis Suarez has called a special meeting for 9:30 a.m. Monday at City Hall to consider a new temporary program under which motorized scooters could operate in Miami’s urban core with “updated safety measures,” according to a memo from Suarez requesting the meeting.
On Thursday, Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla successfully led the effort to shut down the previous three-year program that allowed scooters in Commissioner Ken Russell’s district, which includes Edgewater, downtown, Brickell and Coconut Grove. Russell has long championed the scooters as an effective “micro-mobility” solution that helps people travel the first or last mile of their commutes in Miami’s urban core. Díaz de la Portilla said the program was “an accident waiting to happen.”
Now Díaz de la Portilla is sponsoring a new program that could include a a host of new requirements for scooter companies — helmets, speed controls, docking stations, stiffer penalties for violations and a large cut of revenue for the city.
“We’re going to need micro-mobility,” said Díaz de la Portilla in an interview Monday. “But we have to have a program that is safe.”
After the scooters were deactivated and scooped up by vendors Friday, Suarez received complaints in emails, calls and social media posts from scooter riders who use them to get to work.
“After receiving a great influx of concern from residents and other stakeholders, we decided that it would be in the city’s best interest to revisit an amended scooter pilot program,” the mayor said. “The scooter program has been a tremendous success for addressing micromobility limitations in the City of Miami, and a more robust scooter program has the potential to solve one of the biggest challenges that face American cities: the last mile.”
The vote to shutter the scooter program coincidentally occurred hours after Suarez appeared at a conference in Los Angeles to promote micro-mobility.
Administrators have spent months on a public bid for a permanent scooter program that would authorize only certain companies to operate in the city. The process has taken longer than commissioners expected, and it won’t be completed until at least January. Díaz de la Portilla said he wants to see the permanent program include some of the safety measures that will be discussed Monday, and he wants the process to be complete by mid-January.
The Biscayne Neighborhoods Association, which represents residents in Omni and Edgewater, sent out an email Tuesday asking residents to oppose a scooter program unless it was drastically changed.
“While BNA does not opposed a properly managed program to incorporate scooters and other micro-mobility options into Miami’s transportation infrastructure, we have seen the scooters deployed so far in a reckless manner,” reads the
email from association president Andres Althabe. “We are against re-initiating the pilot program in the way it has been operating. If city leaders want to bring scooters back, they need to put together a realistic licensing scheme that actually addresses resident concerns.”
The Downtown Neighbors Alliance, representing condo dwellers downtown, has also asked commissioners to come up with stronger rules to make sure children can’t ride the scooters and to force operators to corral the scooters into docking stations.
“We’re willing to champion it, but we can’t support it the way it is,” said Jim Torres, president of the Downtown Neighbors Alliance, during comments before Thursday’s vote. “There’s no infrastructure. The geofencing is not working.”
After news came out of Monday’s meeting to consider a new scooter deal, advocates cheered on social media.
“We agree that we need safe micro-mobility, and it’s important that we move forward with creating a better program quickly,” tweeted the account for transit advocacy group Miami Riders Alliance.