By now, many people if not everyone has seen a lime colored scooter or a black electric scooter parked along the city sidewalks.
When it comes to these electric scooters, it is a love and hate relationship. You will either love them and want them to stay, or you will probably hate them and can't wait for them to be banned.
For the past couple of months, the two electric scooter companies, Lime and Bird, have been facing many struggles in an attempt to continue offering their low-cost transportation in Raleigh.
Last year, Raleigh's city council proposed requirements for both companies to follow in order to stay in the city. Some of those requirements included an annual $300 fee per scooter, insurance, a maximum of 500 scooters allowed in the city, and all the scooters must be registered with the Division of Motor Vehicles.
Both companies agreed to the rules in December of 2018, but they are now realizing that following these rules won't be as easy as they thought.
When Lime attempted to register their scooters with the DMV as instructed, they were informed that it could not be done because electric scooters don't fall under any category for the DMV to categorize them as. Now the city and the companies are back at square one.
Because of the steep price Raleigh has forced on the scooter companies, they inevitably had to increase the cost of usage to make up for their losses. If you see an additional $2 charge on top of the $1 unlocking and 15 cents per mile fees, then that's why.
It is also obvious that there have been fewer scooters seen because of the 500 maximum that Raleigh has set for each company. With there being a multiple of universities is already the second largest city in the state, there is no way possible that the entire city will be serviced equally.
I searched for about two hours before I was finally able to find just two scooters, so the decrease of these scooters has definitely happened.
Lime has already started recruiting its users for support in this battle. Once you open their app, there is a link called "Keep Lime in Raleigh" at the top. This will then send you to a form that will allow you to send an email to city leaders.
I recently submitted one and received a response saying, "Good afternoon, Thank you for your email to Council Member Crowder. I serve as Policy Analyst to Ms. Crowder and your email has been received. She appreciates your input regarding this matter and will take it into consideration. Thank you for taking the time to provide your comments and interest in the City of Raleigh".
It didn't seem like the response was personal or concerned, but it was still important for me to voice my opinion about keeping the scooters because I am a frequent user while on my college campus. It has saved me from being late to a class many times.
If these scooters are taken away, that is a form of cost-efficient transportation that many college students, who don't own personal cars, will be without.
Although the battle has been difficult, both companies have been riding strong to remain in Raleigh.
