Miami commission votes to remove electric scooters from its streets

The Miami City Commission has voted to end its multi-year experiment with shared electric scooters. The commission approved a "pocket item" (a last-minute legislative maneuver) in a vote of four to five to eliminate the Miami scooter pilot. This order has come into effect from the midnight of 18 November.

Since 2018, Miami residents and tourists have been able to use the mobile application to rent dockless electric scooters. Companies have until 5 pm. The city will confiscate the scooters for not taking them off the streets on Friday 19th November.

According to Mass Transit magazine, Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla said, "We're shutting it down." "That's all."

Where scooters are usually located has caused some controversy, but electric two-wheelers were particularly divisive in Miami. Supporters claimed they were useful in reducing car usage and connecting residents to transit hubs. Critics said they were a nuisance, blocking sidewalks and creating conditions in which unskilled riders were at risk of being injured in traffic.

This vote caused a stir in the scooter companies. “We are extremely disappointed in the Commission's hasty and short-sighted action to end the scooter program, removing a safe and popular transportation option used daily by thousands of Miami residents, and laying off dozens of workers a week before Thanksgiving. Do it,” Carolyn Samponaro, VP of Transit, Bike and Scooter Policy at Lyft, said in a statement.

Samponaro cited recent comments by Miami Mayor Francis Suarez in support of shared electric scooters while speaking at the LA Auto Show. “We hope he will stand before the commission to stop this action on behalf of Miami residents and visitors,” she said of the mayor.

The commissioners who voted to terminate the pilot claimed to be motivated by safety. "On Biscayne Boulevard, at any time of the day, you see kids on these scooters," said Diaz de la Portilla, who led the effort to end the program, according to Mass Transit. "It's an accident waiting to happen."

Other cities have used security as the pretext of banning scooters. Nashville shut down its e-scooter pilot in 2019 after a drunk man was killed by a car driver while riding a scooter.

Proponents of micromobility often point out that cars and trucks, not scooters, are the biggest danger to people on the road. When someone is injured while riding a scooter or other light vehicle, it is often because cities have done little to protect them, such as setting up protected bike lanes, lowering speed limits or walking, cycling. . Promote policies to encourage driving and scooter riding. They argue that the closure of scooters reinforces the notion that roads are for cars, not people.