Downtown Orlando officially has scooter share.
Lime (Website), the company that brought Orlando Lime bikes, officially began renting scooters to downtown locals Tuesday. The company held a "First Ride safety course" that day inside the Geico Parking Garage.
The scooters can be found by using the Lime App on users' phones. It shows an up to the minute map of where scooters are available to be rented. Users locate their desired scooter, scan the QR code located on the handlebars or the baseboard using the Lime app, and ride away.
More scooter companies are expected to appear. Micro Mobility companies Bird, Wheels and Lynx City have all applied, with just Bird and Lime receiving approval so far.
Wheels (Website) first launched in California. Their scooters are unique in that they come with helmets and have seats. Read their Application
Bird (Website) launched in 2017 and is the only major operator not owned or funded by car or ride-hail company. It has scooter share operations in 125 cities globally. Read their Application
Lynx City (Website) is a company based out of Connecticut that launched in 2019. It will have a warehouse at 593 Fairvilla Road. Read their Application
Scooter sharing activity came downtown thanks to the City of Orlando's one year long Pilot Program for electric scooter-share services that got approved by City Council December 9, 2019.
Read the City's scooter policies and rules HERE.
The scooters will have a maximum speed of 10 miles per hour.***
No one under the age of 18 is allowed to rent a scooter in this pilot program.
Scooters may be parked on a sidewalk or other hard surface within the City right of way or next to (but not on) a bike rack. They may only be parked on private property with the permission of the property owner. The city may also designate motorized scooter parking zones in order to guide riders to preferred parking zones and assist with the orderly parking of motorized scooters throughout the city.
The scooters will be removed from Orange Avenue from Robinson Street to South Street on Friday and Saturday nights before 6pm.
A maximum of 1,800 scooters will be allowed to be in use during the pilot program. Each participating scooter company can have between 200 and 400 scooters in the program. A company can request to have up to 600 scooters 4 months after they get their permit.
60% of each company's fleet can be in the Downtown Community Redevelopment Agency (MAP) east of I-4. A minimum of 20% must be made available west of Interstate-4 within the Downtown CRA. The remaining portion of the fleet must be staged outside of the CRA but may not be staged in City of Orlando Historic Districts.
Each scooter company must apply for a permit from the City. Approved companies will pay the City a fee of $.25 cents per ride taken by customers along with a non-refundable application and licensing fee of $5,000. They must also .
All companies must maintain a searchable database with the following information for each scooter rented:
name, address and mobile phone number of the person who rented the scooter
the date, time and duration (“rental period”) of each person’s rental of a scooter
the route taken during the rental period
the location of the scooter at any particular time during the rental period.
The company will not be required to share this data with the City.
***The scooters will have a maximum speed of 10 miles per hour via the installation of a governor** or other such device. That speed may be increased to 15 miles per hour by the pilot program Director per the request of scooter companies if the Director feels the change would be in the public interest.
The Lime app shows where the scooters are located in real time:
Scooter placement is dynamic and based on vendors, but the City has designated parking options shown on the map below. See the updated map HERE.
Comments