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It's unclear whether, if ever, floating electric scooters will be allowed in Seattle, but to the south, Tacoma is trying them.
Late last week, Lime launched floating electric bikes and scooters in the City of Destiny as part of a two-month pilot project, reports Geekwire. Lime currently operates electric and standard pedal bikes in Seattle, but the Tacoma fleet is fully electric, according to the Tacoma News Tribune.
Lime starts with 250 scooters and 100 e-bikes. After the first two months, Tacoma officials will launch a call to find out how to move forward.
According to the city's Lime Deployment page, scooters are allowed on sidewalks, roads, walkways and shoulders, but not on bike lanes, trails or pedestrian trails. E-bikes are allowed wherever "conventional bicycles" are permitted, including sidewalks.
In exchange for peddling the vehicles in the city, Lime will pay $ 28.44 per bike and $ 14.22 per scooter for the pilot's 60-day period, as per Lime's permit with the city. During the Seattle pilot, the operating cost was $ 15 per bike for the duration of the pilot; Now that Seattle has a long-term program in place, licensing fees are $ 50 per bike per year.
The lime can launch up to 250 scooters and 250 bikes, which can be adjusted in either direction depending on the number of passengers. The pilot can be extended for 30 days at a time, at the discretion of the city.
Rather than writing his own set of rules, Tacoma chose to start with the Seattle rules – literally: "Lime will operate in Tacoma in full compliance with the requirements of the Seattle Department of Transportation's floating bikes sharing license – and will exception. This means that the rules regarding safety standards, service levels and parking (parking in the "landscape / furniture" area of the sidewalk or on a bike rack) are the same.
Earlier this month, when Tacoma's operations were announced for the first time, Lime spokesman Gabriel Scheer would only confirm that the company had asked to launch in Tacoma. "We are striving to do everything in our power to raise awareness," said Scheer. Scheer did not immediately return a request for comment on the launch of the program.
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