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A pilot program that would bring electric scooters back to Cambridge hit a roadblock Wednesday, and it's unlikely that a city-approved test drive for tiny vehicles will take place this year.
Jan Devereux, who chairs the city council's Transportation and Utilities Committee, told WBUR on Tuesday that scooters – deployed briefly without a license by Bird Rides, Inc. over the summer – could return in October. Devereux has suggested that Bird and his main rival, Lime, could be licensed by street vendors to operate temporarily, even though the Massachusetts Department of Transportation was reviewing scooter sharing systems.
Cambridge officials had hoped that the review would include a decision on whether a state law requiring flashers and brake lights applies to the types of scooters managed by Bird and Lime, which have no one or the other. Devereux said that she thought the law was meant for mopeds, not stand-up devices that reached 15 miles at the time.
But at a Transportation Committee meeting Wednesday afternoon, Joseph Barr, director of Cambridge Traffic, Parking and Transportation, said MassDOT had notified the city that it would not rule on the applicability of the law. . The lawyers' interpretation is that the law applies to Bird and Lime scooters.
"As the scooters are not up to date right now … we should wait until the legislative session begins in January 2019 to change the law so we can move forward," said Alanna. Mallon.
Susanne Rasmussen, the city's director of environmental planning and transportation, agreed that the state legislature should change the law or that scooter companies should add the required safety devices. Neither Bird nor Lime, who sent representatives to Wednesday's meeting, pledged to make the necessary changes to the equipment.
Scott Mullen, general manager of Lime's Northeast, said in an interview that the company's new model had brake lights, but added, "The guidelines are stricter."
"There are some problems, potentially," he said. "You have a brake in your left hand, you have an accelerator in your right hand, how do you control these guidelines, if we want to get a legislative change that would probably eliminate these restrictions, do we do this work now, before that the snow does come, if anyway it is irrelevenat? Much to think after today. "
Hannah Smith, Government Relations Manager at Bird, declined an interview request.
In July, Cambridge ordered Bird to leave the streets of the city after the California-based start-up deployed his scooters in the city without asking permission. Bird initially ignored the request, but eventually folded in August, while public works teams seized the company's fleet.
Meanwhile, Cambridge Mayor Marc McGovern congratulated Mr. Lime for organizing his deployment until the development of a licensing system.
McGovern and other city officials cited safety issues among their reasons for curbing electric scooters. Runners often give up helmets despite warnings in mobile applications used to rent them.
Scooters also do not have designated pickup and drop off locations. Officials in Cambridge and dozens of other US cities that operate scooter companies said they have received praise for the convenience of the non-anchored system, but also complaints about blocked sidewalks and other hazards.
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