Dockless scooters on way back to Denver

Those green electric scooters could be whizzing around Denver as early as Friday.

Denver Public Works approved permits for Lime and four other dockless scooter companies as part of its one-year pilot program to see whether the scooters and dockless bikes can be part of the city’s goal to reduce singleoccupant vehicle commute trips by 2030.

Each company can have up to 350 dockless scooters. Two companies can have up to 500 bikes each.

Users unlock the scooters and bikes through an app on their phone that charges their credit card by the minute. Denver and other cities have grappled with the “dockless” aspect of the rental rides: Companies don’t require riders to park their bikes or scooters in a specific location or dock.

Some Denver riders were parking them pretty much wherever they felt, including in the middle of city sidewalks. The companies do recommend riders be respect- ful about where they park.

A few weeks after Lime’s May 25 debut, the city’s Public Works Department told Lime and Bird they’d be confiscating any bike or scooter parked in a public right of way.

The companies did take their scooters out of Denver in midJune. But only after the city seized

more than 260 electric scooters parked on public streets and sidewalks and fined the companies $150 per confiscated scooter.

When the scooters and bikes return, users are going to have follow a new set of rules about where they can ride and park.

“Current City and Coun ty of Denver Ordinance and state law classifies escooters as ‘toy vehicles’ and requires them to operate on the sidewalk,” according to the city. “They are currently prohibited from riding in the roadway or in bicycle lanes.”

The city also wants riders to return the bikes or scooters they rent to a bus or transit stop. It plans to paint dockless parking areas at those locations starting in late August.