Renting an electric scooter for a ride isn’t quite as simple as hopping on and zipping off. Riders must first download each company’s app using a smartphone. The app shows locations of nearby scooters that are currently unoccupied and ready to be checked out. Typically, scooters are placed in neat rows first thing in the morning, after being charged overnight. Later in the day, scooters may be distributed in more irregular groups as they are ridden and parked in various places by the riders. First-time users of an app also need to enter a credit card for payment (entered one time then used for all subsequent purchases, similar to the way the Uber and Lyft apps work), and a photo of a driver’s license to verify age. Critics have noted these requirements do limit use across the socioeconomic spectrum; Washington D.C. is hoping to develop a method for cash payment. ⁽¹⁾ Rides are priced by the minute, timed from check-out to check-in using the app. Some apps also require that users take a photo of the scooter where it is stopped at the end of the ride to record potentially illegal parking practices. Riders can expect to pay a typical fee of $1.00 to unlock the scooter, plus $0.15 per minute.

Electric scooters may have famously started in California, but 2018 saw the trend spread across the country and throughout the world. With such exponential growth, many cities have multiple competing brands of scooters within the same geographic area. The City of Austin, Texas has had such high rates of usage that scooter providers have needed to schedule mid-day servicing of their fleets to charge the scooters’ batteries. The usefulness of scooters in urban settings and the potential to replace short car trips has drawn enormous investment to electric scooter companies. Ford recently purchased Spin for nearly $100 million, while Uber has partnered with Lime. ⁽²⁾

The first of many regulatory challenges comes with the way a scooter company chooses to launch a fleet in a new city. Several companies initially gained the industry a reputation of “begging for forgiveness rather than first asking for permission” after launching electric scooter fleets without consulting city officials. This prompted San Francisco to temporarily ban all electric scooters, eventually offering two permits to electric scooter companies Skip and Scoot. Other cities issue permits to a certain number of total electric scooters, split among different providers. ^{( 2)}

Supposing an electric scooter company does approach a city first to request permission to operate locally, how might a city respond? Some jurisdictions might be glad for the private investment in public transit and permit operation without caveats. Others, hesitant of the demands electric scooters place upon the public right of way, may take a different approach - as did New York City, when, considering the density of sidewalks and bicycle lanes without scooters, issued a firm “thanks, no thanks” to scooter companies. State regulations may also play a role in whether electric scooters must operate on city streets, sidewalks, or not at all.