City Council considers opening doors for rentable electric scooters

Authored By Alina Hunter-Grah

Rentable electric scooters may soon be popping up on area streets after Chattanooga City Council members began considering the possibility of allowing companies to bring them here. These rentable electric scooters, from companies such as the Bird and Lime, are already found in cities including Nashville, Los Angeles and San Francisco and are meant to be fun, green sources of transportation. The scooters have no docking stations and can be left standing alone on city streets. Scooters are designed to only operate after a user pays for the scooter using a smartphone app. While the prospect of the new transportation option has been well-received in some cities, others have banned the scooters after a wide range of issues involving safety and bike storage. Even cities as close as Nashville have experienced problems. These issues led to a long discussion Tuesday at a city council strategic planning meeting about how to handle the incoming scooter companies. Many of the questions revolved around potential permitting processes and safety issues. District 4 Councilman Darrin Ledford asked about how the police department might look into handling cases of scootering while intoxicated or users with no helmets. District 6 City Councilman Russell Gilbert asked whether users would be required to use bike lanes. District 8 City Councilman Anthony Byrd, District 6 City Councilwoman Carol Berz, and District 3 City Councilman Ken Smith all asked about more legal-oriented matters regarding fault in crashes, violation fees and company versus city liability. Chattanooga Department of Transportation Administrator Blythe Bailey said state law does require helmets, scooters would be restricted to bike lanes where available, and other issues would follow the rest of the rules usually used for bikes. “We’ve thought as many things as we can,” he said. “We’re trying not to add extra laws where we didn’t need to. We’ll get with [police] chief to know what [the other] answers are.” A Bird spokesperson said via email that the company has no plans to announce “at this time.” “But we believe Chattanooga would be a great place to provide our accessible, affordable, environmentally friendly transportation option,” the spokesperson also said. “We hope to collaborate with the city officials to bring Bird’s service to Chattanooga in the future.” A Lime spokesperson said via email the company’s leaders are in talks with the city and are eager to provide new mobility options for Chattanooga. Alina Hunter-Grah is a contributing writer. She is a graduate of The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where she received a bachelor’s degree in communication with a minor in political science. Alina has over three years of journalism experience including time spent with CNN and 2nd & Church, a magazine based in Nashville, Tennessee. You can reach Alina at ahuntergrah@gmail.com or on Twitter @alinahuntergrah. Chloé Morrison contributed to this article. Updated at 9 a.m. Sept. 13 to add new information, a comment from a Lime spokesperson, as it became available.