Scooting and Juicing without a Citrus Fruit

We learned some new jargon while we were learning about electric scooters at the Feb. 19 Evanston Bicycle Club (EBC) meeting.  For example: 
 
“Electric Scooter” (also known as e-scooter), a shared, dockless, application based, micro-mobility device that requires charging
“Scooting”, the act of using an e-scooter. 
“Juicing’, the practice of charging Lime brand scooters; people who are authorized to pick up and charge e-scooters at their homes at night for a fee are called Lime juicers
 “Geofencing”, the use of GPS or RFID technology to create a virtual geographic boundary

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Maggie Melin, Advocacy Manager at Active Transportation Alliance, started our education by citing the beginning of the scooter craze in Santa Monica CA in September, 2017 with the operator of the Bird brand scooters dropping scooters in the community without permission.  In less than 2 years there are 18 state with e-scooter sharing programs.  Advantages of e-scooters are:

• Replaces auto trips
• Addresses the first/last mile connection
• Provides access to jobs, transit
• Positive impact on public health, air quality, local economy and equity

Potential disadvantages are:

• Riding scooters and parking on sidewalks
• Crowded bike lanes and trails
• Speeding
• Crashes, falls, and injuries
• Replacing walking or biking trips

 
E-scooters are current not allowed in Chicago.  To help recommend what the policy for e-scooters in Chicago should be, Active Trans conducted an e-scooter survey, analyzed the results of a 120 day pilot in 2018 in Portland, OR and reviewed a study by DePaul University.  Among their recommendations are:

• Limit sidewalk riding in congested areas and use in bike lanes, parks, and trails if necessary
• Cap the speed at 15 mph
• Manage fleet size and allow to scale
• Require user education on safety and parking
• Make anonymized trip data publicly available
• Assure coverage in underserved neighborhoods
• Enable payment options for people without smart phones
• Use a portion of fees for a dedicated Bike Walk Fund

 
Operators of e-scooter programs include Bird, Bolt, Jump (Uber), Lyft, RazorUSA, Scoot Networks, Skip, Spin (Ford), and Lime.  Matt Donelan, Operations Manager of Lime in Chicago was in attendance with an actual Lime e-scooter.  Lime is an American company that operates mostly on the west coast.  One of the advantages of e-scooters as a micro-mobility option is that there is no need for docking stations.  The result is:

• The user is not limited to a 30-minute trip before you have to find a dock
• Funding for building out the infrastructure of docks is not required