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It’s been a little more than a year since we told you that electric scooters were coming to Chattanooga and six months since city council members voted to put a temporary ban on the trendy + controversial modes of transportation.
Now that they’ve been tested here and briefly banned, the moratorium may become permanent.
Councilman Ken Smith said this week that the city has been doing fine without them, so he introduced legislation that would indefinitely ban the electric scooters.
The first reading of Smith’s new legislation is set for Jan. 21’s City Council meeting, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
🛴 Brief background
- In November 2018, transportation company Lime brought the scooters to town to let groups (including NOOGAtoday reporters) test them, and the business’ leaders said then they were working to deploy them here.
- By spring 2019, citizens + city council people raised concerns about safety, citing accidents.
- Some people who used them in other areas, said the dockless scooters litter the streets because part of the idea is that you can leave them just about anywhere when you’re finished.
- Despite an effort to write rules to avoid similar problems, City Council eventually settled on the six-month ban.
🛴 No one asked us, but…
- Chloé here. I got to test the Lime scooters by taking them for a spin around Miller Park, and at that time it was pretty clear that I loved them. I live + work downtown and could see them being useful. I could avoid driving but get to places more quickly. And a scooter is easier on my clothes. (Straddling a bike in a dress is difficult to do gracefully.) But, my sister lives in Nashville, and every time I see them littered in streets there, I am thankful that’s not happening in Chattanooga.
Trista has a different perspective and, who can blame her?
- I would personally be thrilled to never see an electric scooter again. While visiting Austin, TX a couple of years ago, I tried one out and went home with a broken ankle after jumping off it when a car almost hit me. So yeah, that’s gonna be a no from me, dawg.
