Lime wants to block Scoot and Skip from Electric Scooters in SF next week – TechCrunch

Lime is doing the most right now. In light of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency denying Lime permit to operate electric scooters in the city, Lime is gearing up to request a temporary restraining order.

"Lime believes that after selecting two other less electric scooter companies and comparatively weaker applications in a process that was riddled with bias, the SFMTA should revisit the decision and employ a selection process," the company wrote in a press release.

Those two "less experienced" electric scooter companies are operating in Washington, DC, and Scoot, which has successfully and legally operated in many different countries.

Following the SFMTA's decision, Lime feels an appealing reevaluate its application. At the time, the SFMTA said it was "confident" it picked the right companies.

Now, since the SFMTA still plans to activate both Scoot and Skip to deploy their respective scooters on Monday, Lime says it "believes that it has no choice but to seek emergency relief in the court."

Ahead of the decision in Santa Monica, Lime, along with Bird, Lime a permit. Lime has allowed. Lime, however, is not the only one that has appealed the decision in San Francisco. Earlier this week, Lyft reportedly petitioned SF Mayor London Breed, asking for the SFMTA's decision for only grant for electric scooters.

"It's unfortunate Lime has chosen this race," John Coté, communications director for City Attorney Dennis Herrera said in a statement. "The SFMTA's permitting process has been thoughtful, fair and transparent. It includes an appeal that Lime should be pursuing instead of wasting everyone's resources by running to court. "

He added:

Lime appears to be playing games. It had weeks to resolve this last thing last minute in an effort to shut down the entire scooter program. Lime fails to admit that its application simply did not match those of its competitors. If Lime succeeds, it's going to be hurting the people it's going to be.

Last spring, Lime told San Franciscans that electric scooters were a great alternative transportation. Now, they're saying that they can not run electric scooters in San Francisco, no one can. It's sour grapes from Lime, plain and simple.

I'm reaching out to SFMTA and will update this story if I hear back.