Scooter Media Brief: Safety, Security, and Business Models Raise Concerns

The last time Planetizen checked in with the world of electric scooter news, at the end of January 2019, it seemed possible to discern political and public support coalescing around the idea that electric scooters were here to stay.

It's harder to make that prediction in the middle of March 2019. Market conditions are changing as quickly as the pavement on any given street or sidewalk block in Los Angeles. 

A few narratives stick out from the many, many articles we gathered over the course of the past month and a half, and the chatter we've been monitoring on social media. First, concern persists about the physical safety of people who ride electric scooters. Second, there have been a couple of occasions to raise concerns about the security of scooter technology, both with the operation of scooters and the privacy of users. Finally, the electric scooter business is heavily reliant on subsidies from venture capital funding. The business model isn't exactly sustainable at its current prices, and we're only beginning to hear about the long-term viability of these companies. These issues are shared with transportation network companies, which have been busy buying out scooter and bike rental companies.  

National News

• A Lime scooter accident left Ashanti Jordan in a vegetative state. Now her mother is suing on her behalf. (The Washington Post, February 11, 2019)
• Electric scooters popular with ride-sharing services can be hacked to suddenly accelerate or brake (The Verge, February 12, 2019)
• Disability Lawsuit Targets San Diego Over Dockless Scooters (KPBS, February 19, 2019)
• A software glitch is throwing riders off of Lime scooters (Quartz, February 23, 2019)
• Lime warns its scooter riders are being injured by 'sudden excessive braking' (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 25, 2019)
• Lime warns riders of bug that causes sudden braking (Smart Cities Dive, February 27, 2019)
• ScootScoop is taking the dockless 'infestation' into its own hands (Smart Cities Dive, March 6, 2019)
• Lyft lays off up to 50 in bikes and scooters as it gears up for another wave of launches (TechCrunch, March 8, 2019)
• Scooters are littering sidewalks and injuring pedestrians. Can this startup bring order to the chaos? (The Washington Post, March 12, 2019)

National Commentary

• Ready or Not, Here Comes the Micromobility Revolution (CityLab, February 5, 2019)
• Who’s liable in a crash involving an e-scooter? A bike lawyer explains (Mobility Lab, February 26, 2019)
• Shared scooters don't last long (Oversharing, February 26, 2019)

Local News

• City Hall: Dockless electric scooters may be invited to Lincoln (Lincoln Journal Star, January 29, 2019)
• Iowa lawmakers consider e-scooter rules as Cedar Rapids weighs including them in bike share (The Gazette, February 6, 2019)
• New bill would allow e-scooter riders to zoom down busier Utah roads, but they’d be banned from driving them while impaired (The Salt Lake Tribune, February 7, 2019)
• Electric scooters are coming to Knoxville in 2019 — temporarily, at least (Knoxville New Sentinel, February 8, 2019)
• Should e-scooter riders be required to wear helmets? Politicians to hold hearing (The Oregonian, February 11, 2019)
• Dockless scooter curfew? City Council may vote to restrict when scooters can be used (Fox San Antonio, February 11, 2019)
• Lime loses appeal to operate electric scooters in SF (TechCrunch, February 13, 2019)
• Burlington-area communities consider scooter, bike share system (My Champlain Valley, February 13, 2019)
• Scooter company reps scolded by Oregon legislators over helmet law proposal (Bike Portland, February 20, 2019)
• Lime to pull bikes, surprising San Mateo, South San Francisco and Burlingame officials (The Daily Journal, February 20, 2019)
• San Jose State bans electric scooters from campus (The Mercury News, February 25, 2019)
• Scoot’s local hires giving it an edge on the competition (San Francisco Examiner, March 10, 2019)
• The electric scooter fleet could triple in Minneapolis (Star Tribune, March 5, 2019)
• 'This is creepy': In LA, scooters become the next data privacy fight (Politico, March 6, 2019)
• How safe is that e-scooter? Hospitals asked to tally injuries (Atlanta Journal Constitution, March 11, 2019)

Local Commentary

• Electric scooters are technically already banned from Phoenix-area sidewalks. Remember go-peds in the '90s? (Arizona Republic, February 5, 2019)
• Atlanta’s scooter laws versus other US cities’ (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 13, 2019)
• All the DC-Area Scooter Programs (Street Justice, February 27, 2019)

International News

• Latin American Scooter Startups Merge, Raise $150 Million (The Information, January 30, 2019)