Greater Harrisburg's Community Magazine

Scoot Along: Are electric scooters coming to a city street near you?

A Lime electric scooter parked across the street from the state Capitol today.

Could Harrisburg be hopping aboard the electric scooter craze?

That’s the hope of Shari Shapiro, who brought a few her company’s slender vehicles to the state Capitol today for a test-scoot.

Shapiro said that Harrisburg is one of four Pennsylvania cities where San Francisco-based Lime would like to deploy scooters if the state legislature passes enabling legislation.

Why Harrisburg?

“The uses are in places with a lot of density, where there are a lot of places to go,” said Shapiro, Lime’s director of mid-Atlantic government relations. “Cities should have a good mix of commercial and residential.”

About 30 percent of rides, she said, go to and from public transit and another 20 percent are for running errands and commuting–and Harrisburg has a lot of commuters and dense residential neighborhoods.

“It’s not really a recreational vehicle,” she said.

Rep. Greg Rothman (R-Cumberland) and Rep. Stephen Kinsey (D-Philadelphia) are co-sponsors of a House bill (HB-631) that would allow “electric low-speed scooters” to operate in specified places in the commonwealth. “Low-speed” is defined as not capable of exceeding 20 mph.

The bill cites numerous benefits of electric scooters, stating that they “help relieve traffic congestion, pollution and stress by reducing car trips and increasing access to public transit.”

If the proposal becomes law, Lime would need to enter into memorandum of understanding with Harrisburg in order to operate here.

In recent years, electric scooters have popped up in cities around the nation, and Lime scooters are deployed in more than 90 cities in the United States.

The scooters are dock-less, meaning that users don’t need to pick them up or return them to docking stations. Instead, riders download an app and scan a QR code, which shows them nearby scooters available for rent.

Lime charges $1 to unlock the scooter and 15 cents per minute of ride time. Shapiro said that the company typically returns 5 to 10 cents per ride back to the municipality, though financial terms, if any, would be set in a memorandum of understanding with the city.

Electric scooters haven’t been without controversy, and some cities have even stopped allowing their use because of concerns over safety and charges of being a public nuisance. Most cities, however, have continued to allow them to operate once approved.

“We’re very excited about the possibility of coming to the city of Harrisburg,” Shapiro said.

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