Bird, Lime, Spin take part in city scooter program
Electric scooter companies Bird, Lime and Spin were selected to participate in Milwaukee’s dockless scooter pilot program that will begin June 1 and allow each company to offer 1,000 scooters.
The three companies also participated in the city’s 2019 pilot program.
The 2021 pilot program will require scooters to be distributed throughout the city with fewer downtown, in contrast to 2019, according to the city Department of Public Works.
The study is meant to determine “how to best incorporate scooters into the transportation landscape moving forward,” the department states on its website.
The pilot program will end Nov. 15. Riding on sidewalks will not be allowed and the scooter riders must follow the rules of the road and park responsibly, according to the department. The scooters’ maximum speed is 15 mph.
The three companies were chosen out of six applicants largely because of their ability to track sidewalk riding and provide notifications to riders in the companies’ smartphone applications or on the scooters, the department said. The technology is supposed to launch this summer.
They also each have “a strong plan” to deploy at least 100 adaptive scooters for people with varying abilities.
The scooters were first allowed in the city as part of the 2019 pilot study, but they arrived a year earlier when Bird prompted consternation and a lawsuit by dropping scooters unannounced on Milwaukee’s streets.
The city did not have a pilot scooter program in 2020.
Bublr, the city’s bikeshare system, will also expand this summer with 26 new stations and about 250 bikes. Most of the stations will be installed in the Bronzeville, Harambee, Midtown, Washington Park, Silver City, Clarke Square and Walker Square neighborhoods.
About 200 of the new bikes will offer an electric-assist feature to increase accessibility.
Bublr currently has a total of 86 stations and 600 bikes, of which 59 stations and 400 bikes are in Milwaukee, according to the Department of Public Works. Others are located in Wauwatosa and West Allis.