Scooters.
People tend to have a love ’em or hate ’em relationship with the standing-up versions of the two-wheeled transportation devices.
For some, the scooter is a cool, easy way to navigate around city streets without having to worry about finding (and paying for) a parking spot.
For others, the scooter is nothing but an annoyance, driven by ironic-glasses-wearing tech nerds who think nothing of flying on one down pedestrian sidewalks and not paying any attention at all to the accepted rules of the road.
Well, that dichotomy hasn’t stopped some companies from getting in on the shared-vehicle game by offering the motorized scooters on a for-hire basis. Startups such as Bird, Lime and Spin have begun scooter-sharing businesses around the Bay Area. And car-sharing companies Uber and Lyft want to get in on the game, too.
But the scooter situation in San Francisco is about to change. According to a report from Axios, both Uber and Lyft have applied for permits under a San Francisco pilot program aimed at putting a cap on the number of shared scooters on city streets.
Under terms of the program, shared-scooter operators were to have had their scooters off the streets by Monday, June 4, and then apply for one of the city’s permits starting on Thursday, June 7. The city says it will begin issuing permits under the pilot program by the end of June. The program will allocate 1,250 permits for the first six months of the 12-month pilot period. The number of permits could double in the program’s remaining six months.
The companies that receive permits will get a set number of scooters under the program. According to Axios, Lime and Spin have said they will comply with the rules set down by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, and Bird would work with the SFMTA to obtain a permit.
As for Uber and Lyft, both companies have explored scooters as a way of expanding their transportation options. But it remains to be seen whether the scooting noisemakers end up being as prevalent on city streets as the cars that bear the logos of the two ride-sharing leaders.
Neither Uber nor Lyft immediately responded to a request for comment from this news organization.