Chicago's electric scooter pilot program ends after four months
CHICAGO - The fate of Chicago’s electric scooters is now in the hands of city officials and Chicagoans.
The electric scooter companies testing out the devices have been picking them up off the streets this week.
For the last four months, 2,500 share-able scooters have given hundreds of thousands of rides as part of a pilot program on the west side of Chicago. Now the question is: should scooters become permanent?
“We think the pilot was a success,” said Kyle Whitehead, Active Transportation Alliance. “They are clearly popular.”
There have been almost 800,000 individual scooter rides since mid-June, to both positive and negative reviews.
Whitehead says scooters should remain in Chicago, as long as they're available in parts of the city that lack transportation options, are not allowed downtown, and are not allowed to be left out to block sidewalks.
“One thing we're recommending to address that is designated corrals or docks or having scooters locked to bike racks or posts,” said Whitehead.
In the coming weeks, the City of Chicago’s going to be looking into scooter ridership data, community feedback, injury reports, and complaints in deciding their future.
As part of its evaluation, the city of Chicago is looking for your input.
If you have an opinion, you're asked to do a survey online which you can find here.