Monday, June 11, 2018

Santa Barbara Takes Hard Line On Lime Scooters

The City of Santa Barbara has taken a hard line on the first, on-demand scooter rental service to hit the city--Lime--and has impounded every single scooter placed in the city on Friday by Lime. Lime had placed 100 scooters on State Street on Friday as part of its launch of its service, which it did without permission of the city. Lime, along with Santa Monica's Bird--have been launching their on-demand electric scooter rentals nationwide, using the same approach used by Uber and Lyft in their ride sharing services--without bothering to ask for permission from cities. Santa Barbara is not the first city where those scooter rental companies have faced backlash from local cities. In its explanation for its impounding of Lime's scooters, Santa Barbara said the scooters could become a trip hazard to pedestrians, the lack of helmets for those scooters, and how users are riding those scooters on sidewalks.