It was a bribe that began the adventure-filled journey for Kaiti Mohler Jones. The mother of five had been lured away from her home on the western edge of Colorado Springs one recent autumn evening. Ike Raidl, her partner of roughly a dozen years, had planned to walk and guide Jones to a nearby spot where an electric scooter stood, waiting like a chariot-for-hire.
“Ike bribed me to leave the house for date night,” wrote Jones in an email.
She had seen electronic scooters, or e-scooters, before in Denver. “I’ve always wanted to ride” one but couldn’t because she always had “at least one infant with me.” After recently seeing numerous e-scooters lined along sidewalks in Old Colorado City and downtown, Jones was again interested and wanted to ride an e-scooter.
After locating the e-scooter near their home on a smartphone app, Raidl and Jones took turns riding the e-scooter as they walked a short distance to another e-scooter. They repeated the process to reserve and unlock the second e-scooter, and once unlocked, the two promptly went riding along Pikes Peak Avenue to OCC for their date night.
If you’ve recently driven along Colorado Avenue on the westside and downtown Colorado Springs, you can’t miss the neatly lined rows of black and lime green e-scooters parked along sidewalks and at street intersections. According to a press release, there are 600 e-scooters around downtown and Old Colorado City waiting to be rented.
Shared E-Scooter Pilot Program
Colorado Springs launched a Shared E-Scooter Pilot Program for the downtown and central areas of the city early in October. The program is designed to test and measure “micro-mobility” transportation in an effort to promote less automobile use in urban areas, reduce environmental pollution, and otherwise offer affordable alternative modes of transportation in urban centers.
According to this website dedicated to micro-mobility, the focus on finding smaller means and modes of transportation has been around for at least two centuries. Bicycle lanes, e-scooters, and even e-bicycles are all part of the micro-mobility movement apparently adopted by Colorado Springs.
Pike Ride, a bicycle-share program that now offers 250 e-bicycles rentals, was launched in Colorado Springs in 2018. The city has endured previous controversy around bicycle lanes in the downtown area for the singular purpose of encouraging bicycle use.
“I like the idea of the [e-scooters] filling the gap between bus stops and destinations,” wrote Jones in her email. She added she wanted her 14-year-old son, Maddox, and his friends to “start riding [e-scooters] to our home on days they are meeting [to play] Dungeons & Dragons.”
“I’ve seen kids riding the scooters,” wrote Jones.
Both the city and Veo’s websites indicate the e-scooters are to be rented only for people aged 18 and up. Despite the policy, people younger than 18 have been seen riding the e-scooters around downtown. In an email exchange in which Matt Fitzsimmons, an Urban Planner in the city’s Planning Department, forwarded an email from a Veo representative, the company’s age policy for rentals was acknowledged as “confusing.”
The company’s age policy for the e-scooters is packed alongside a policy for non-motorized pedal bicycles which are not offered in Colorado Springs. That policy allows for rentals only of the bicycles with parental supervision of children ages 13 and up. The confusion stemmed from a blurring the distinction between the 18+ age limit for e-scooter rentals and non-motorized pedal bicycles, and there was a question of whether someone could confuse the two policies.
Fitzsimmons did not respond to an email asking what he would do if he personally saw a person clearly younger than 18 riding an e-scooter near his office in downtown Colorado Springs.
Veo launched its e-scooter rentals on October 4 and Lime began two days later, October 6.
Already, There Are Problems
At a recent City Council meeting, a blind resident spoke and said e-scooters laying around on sidewalks downtown were a hazard for himself and his guide dog. E-scooters have been seen left parked on sidewalks in clear violation of the e-scooters’ Terms of Conditions. E-scooters have also been seen leaning against curbs in downtown.
Additionally, riding on the sidewalks is forbidden, but again, people, young and old, can be seen riding the public sidewalks downtown. A recent Gazette poll indicates the public may not find the e-scooters to be such fun little rides after all: nearly 60% had a negative reaction to the e-scooters.
Fitzsimmons indicated the early rash of complaints were to be expected as people learn about the purpose of the e-scooters, how to ride, where to ride, and so on. He also said downtown could be changed in the future to accommodate e-scooters and other micro-mobility features, from incorporating parallel parking to offering more, selective spaces for e-scooters to park.
Questions and concerns about e-scooters and injuries still remain.
After spending time in OCC, Raidl and Jones were riding home when one of the e-scooters simply shut off at 11p.m. In her email, Jones seemed good-natured about the incident and noted they parked both e-scooters in an appropriate place and walked home.
How to Ride
You can sign up by using the smartphone app for either Veo or Lime. You unlock an e-scooter and start your trip through the app.
The cost of the e-scooter depends on how long you rent them but the average cost between the two e-scooters brands is 30 cents per minute. If you decide you want to stop by a restaurant to pick up your to-go lunch, you have the option to pause your trip for up to 30 minutes to grab your food before the timer starts up again.
For locals interested in riding to work, for example, there’s a Lime Pass in which the usual $1 unlock fee is waived. Veo Access offers discounts for low income residents and those on federal assistance programs.
This is great