After City Pushback, E-Scooters Pull Out of Miami

Cease and desist notices from city attorneys has temporarily pushed on-demand electric scooter companies Lime and Bird out of the area.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • linkText
  • Email
(TNS) — Remember when those electric scooters started popping up in Wynwood? The ones you could locate and activate with your smartphone?

Apparently they’re leaving Miami.

Two companies that brought in the scooters are temporarily pulling out, according to the Miami Herald, after being issued cease and desist letters from city attorneys that say they violate state law.

LimeBike, a California-based company that has placed dockless bike sharing systems in some South Florida cities, first brought their pay-by-the-minute scooters to Wynwood in April. The company said it was the first location in Florida to get them.

Bird, another company based in California, followed with their own scooters in May, according to the Herald.

The Herald reports that the city council cited safety as a concern with the scooters, and a discussion regarding them is on the agenda for the June 28 Commission meeting.

LimeBike’s Miami scooter program followed similar efforts in San Diego in February and Washington D.C. in March.

“We see this scooter rollout as an excellent opportunity to improve Wynwood by enhancing mobility to local businesses and reducing car traffic, making the shopping district a safer, more environmentally friendly place,” LimeBike’s regional general manager Gauthier Derrien said in April.

©2018 the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • linkText
  • Email