The Culling: Four Fewer Scooter Companies Allowed to Operate in D.C.

"The District’s Department of Transportation has made a final decision on which four scooter companies will operate in the city come April 1: Jump, Lyft, Skip and Spin," reports Margaret Barthel.

The announcement seems to conclude a micromobility controversy that dates to the end of 2019, when the District Department of Transportation cut the number of scooters allowed to operate on streets of the District, before allowing the companies a few months to appeal the decision. That appeal process yielded no changes to the original announcement of the four companies that will be forced to pull scooters off the streets, according to Barthel.

Barthel also explains how DDOT review process evaluated the scooter companies before making the decision: "On the original permit application, companies were scored on a 198-point scoring system. 25 percent of the score dealt with companies’ 'historical behavior,' and the rest looked at the company’s future operational plans, education and equity proposals, and data collection and protection methods."