Portland inundated with electric scooters

The electric scooter companies have rolled out their product. And they are everywhere.  They are all over downtown and I took this picture at 102nd Avenue. My friend told me she’s seen them as far as 168th street.

To ride the scooters, you download an app, and then pay $1.00 to unlock one, and fifteen cents per minute to ride. Electric scooters are supposed to be ridden on streets, not sidewalks and every rider is supposed to wear a helmet.

So far the riders I’ve seen have been good about staying off sidewalks (though while biking, I did encounter one riding the wrong way in the bike line) and very few of them wear helmets.

I’m curious how much a scooter costs the company to purchase. I’m guessing that they are cheap enough that they pay for themselves after a few rides. Or perhaps people are throwing gobs of money at this new venture. I look forward to seeing how these items integrate with our transportation system, though I don’t see myself using this option on a regular basis.

2 thoughts on “Portland inundated with electric scooters”

  1. Its funny, we got ours about a month earlier. We had 0 scooters like this and then all of a sudden, they were everywhere. In fact, two different companies moved in. The city council is not impressed and is working with the companies to create a contract or something. They didn’t ask, just showed up, guerilla style! Shawn says that they pay people to take them home and charge them, perhaps it could be a new revenue stream? He also said that the company wants them to be a transport accompaniment for that last mile of the commute, so to speak.

    1. Ours came in after a careful negotiation. There was drama with the introduction of Uber and so I think the City Council is trying to stay on top of wacky transportation options. Right now we’re in the “super fun” phase. We were out last weekend and so many people were messing around on them. I’m skeptical that they will be around in two years, but you never know. We currently have three companies: Bird, Lime, and Skip. Apparently, if you are going to be in the electric scooter business you only get one syllable.

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