New city rules for scooters raise questions

What’s the rush, Columbus? Just as some residents have been quick to hop on those suddenly ubiquitous Lime and Bird motorized scooters in recent weeks, the city’s Department of Public Service may have been a little hasty in issuing new regulations Tuesday to begin controlling and collecting fees on the “shared mobility devices.”

Columbus apparently sees an unexpected opportunity here to connect the cool commuter options with its much-ballyhooed Smart Columbus plan for transportation of the future.

The new rules state as much, requiring commercial scooter fleets to “tie into the Smart Columbus common payment system once developed.” That has been interpreted as requiring capability for users without credit cards to access the devices through other smartphone-enabled systems including prepaid cash cards.

The city also is telling scooter vendors to provide operational and utilization data to Smart Columbus as well as the city service department and to deploy a minimum of 20 percent of their scooters in Mayor Andrew Ginther’s designated “opportunity neighborhoods.” Those include areas of the city such as Linden and the Hilltop where Ginther wants Smart Columbus to help solve problems of crime, unemployment and infant mortality.

Signaling the city’s pointed interest related to Smart Columbus, the scooter rules also dictate that vendors must provide a comprehensive plan that articulates “how their service will connect the opportunity neighborhood to other neighborhoods and create economic and improved healthy living opportunities.”

It is wise for the city to recognize the potential of scooters to add options to the federally funded transportation system Columbus is attempting to create to address societal issues and challenges.

But issuing new rules too quickly and without more input could be as harmful as those scooter users who dart past pedestrians on sidewalks and through street traffic without helmets or