By early next year, electric scooters should return to Dallas city streets.
In September 2020, scooters were banned in Dallas after concerns were raised about their administration and public safety. Dallas officials stated that e-scooter companies are still organizing the re-introduction of scooters, despite the return having been previously slated for this fall.
Back when scooters were still on track to be relaunched in the fall, staff at the Dallas Department of Transportation noted the necessary practices and solutions for a successful reintegration of e-scooters.
“Some of the key issues that were identified to be addressed before the program could be relaunched included too many vehicles and operators to effectively manage, a lack of an efficient permitting and fee collective process, late night riding that was leading to illegal activity,” said Kathryn Rush, the chief planner in the city’s transportation department.
The City of Dallas is currently finalizing the permit process for e-scooters. The city also contracted a company to collect data on scooter vendors in order to track where the vehicles are used and whether they are complying with city codes and ordinances.
This summer, the Dallas City Council approved the new regulations.
The scooters may present safety risks, as wearing helmets is not mandatory in Dallas. Moreover, an existing ban on riding scooters on sidewalks is often broken, posing a danger to pedestrians.
Dallas streets are notably listed among the deadliest streets in the country for pedestrians.
On the positive side, renting scooters is an affordable form of transportation that reduces car travel and emissions. It also provides an option for citizens who don’t have access to vehicles of their own.
The new rules being put in place will reduce scooter usage in nighttime hours as well as lower the maximum speeds of scooters in high-activity areas of Dallas, such as Deep Ellum. Companies will be required to keep better track of the vehicles to avoid theft and loss. The rules also require companies to place scooters in neighborhoods that are classified as underserved.
Presently, e-scooters are slated to return by mid-February. The precise date is undecided, according to Rush.
Users 16 and older will be allowed to rent the scooters from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The three primary scooter vendors, Bird, Lime, and Superpedestrian, will initially be allowed to have 500 scooters each. Before the 2020 ban, 8,500 scooters in Dallas were operated by four main vendors. Roughly 15,000 scooters total were available before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The scooter program will be evaluated every three months by city officials, potentially allowing for additional scooters in the future.
“If the demand is there, we will slowly allow the companies to increase the number of scooters that are available, but there won’t be this huge influx of scooters on our streets,” Rush said. “The plan is not to have a bunch of scooters being dumped on one corner.”