Second scooter company rolls into OKC
Scoot in close and listen up, there is a second “dockless” scooter rental company in town.
Lime-S scooters joined the ranks of rentable electric scooters alongside Bird Rides Inc. in Oklahoma City. Lime late Wednesday received permits for 17 sites throughout the city to place 85 scooters. These scooters were disbursed Thursday.
But the number of scooters is likely to grow as the 17 permits are only part of a larger application for 50 total locations submitted by Lime, and Bird also received approval to expand its fleet.
Public Works Director "Eric Wenger will continue to work the remainder and is committed to completing them early next week,” Oklahoma City Assistant City Manager Laura Johnson said. “Bird has received administrative approval to increase their fleet size to 250 also, in accord with the council’s action Tuesday.”
The two-wheeled transportation has been a topic of debate around the city as concerns over safety, licensing and where a scooter can be left.
The Oklahoma City Council will hold a public hearing Sept. 11 on an ordinance regulating scooters and other “dockless” rental vehicles.
The proposal sets a limit of 250 scooters or bicycles, including electric-assist bicycles, that any one vendor can deploy around the city. Provisions are made for increasing that number if a company demonstrates demand warrants a bigger fleet.
Companies would have to pay $302 annually for a license and $30 for each scooter or bicycle offered for rent.
A permit would be required for each location where vehicles are parked to start the day. Companies would have to report to the city how many vehicles are in their fleet, where they are used and for how long, and report accidents and
complaints. Procedures would be required for deactivating the accounts of renters who misuse the vehicles — for instance, by blocking access to private property — or break the law.
Lime, the newer of the two scooter companies to Oklahoma City, worked with the city to receive its permits before introducing its product to the market. Bird scooters
appeared several weeks ago, before Bird received permits.
The city council passed an emergency ordinance Aug. 14 giving the Public Works director authority to impound Bird’s scooters unless the company got permits for the “nests” where scooters are deployed each morning, in groups of three, to begin the day. But the city had not impounded
any scooters as of early Thursday afternoon, according to Johnson.
Both products work in similar fashion, using a mobile app to locate and “unlock” a scooter to allow for riding. A base fee is charged to unlock the scooter, followed by a charge per minute the scooter is rented. Scooters are similar in size and possess about the same amount of power.