Chicago’s E-Scooter Program Is Now Permanent. But Will It Be Equitable?

After two pilot programs and a series of public testimonies, e-scooters are returning to Chicago permanently.

The City Council Transportation Committee passed an ordinance on October 13 that would allow three companies to deploy about 12,500 scooters citywide starting next year, making e-scooters an integral part of the city’s transportation system. (Bird, Lime and Spin, as participants in the last city pilot, are likely the three companies, but they will have to re-apply.)

The e-scooter program showed some early success during both pilots. In the 2020 pilot, running at a much bigger scale than in 2019, an average of more than 4,000 trips were taken daily. More than 80% of the riders surveyed believed that scooters should be part of the city’s transportation future. E-scooter-related calls to 311, including complaints about sidewalk riding or devices being locked to private property, dropped by 75% compared to the 2019 pilot. Most injuries reported were minor and usually to scooter users themselves rather than to pedestrians.

Olatunji Oboi Reed, president and CEO of mobility justice advocacy group Equiticity, is excited to see the new transit alternative coming to his neighborhood. Born and raised on the south side of Chicago, Reed has seen firsthand how transportation inequities adversely impact majority Black and brown communities. Those communities have the fewest transportation choices, the longest commutes, the highest concentration of industrial centers and truck traffic. “We don’t have the luxury of picking and choosing which mode of travel we want available in our neighborhoods,” says Reed. “The severity of the inequities is too vast [so] we must have every single mode of travel delivered to our doorstep.”