Lime Unveils ‘Group Ride’ Scooters

Lime, one of three scooter providers operating in Milwaukee, has unveiled a new feature aimed at making it easier to get additional people on scooters.

Under traditional dockless electric scooter rental models, every rider must have their own cellphone to unlock a scooter. But using Lime’s new “Group Ride” feature, a single rider can unlock multiple scooters.

The company has been testing the feature in other markets and recently made it available to Milwaukee users.

“We believe this feature will provide a way for even more people to unlock community and joy by traveling together using our scooters while still riding with one person per scooter,” said the company in a release.

The feature makes it possible to say, help a friend whose phone died or quickly transport someone to a scooter.

Rentals cost $1 per scooter plus 25 cents per minute.

Riders may unlock up to five additional scooters. Riders will need to provide a valid email address and agree to the terms of service through the host’s phone.

Lime, the first entrant into the Milwaukee market through a city-regulated pilot program, began replacing its scooters with a new version last month. The “Gen 3” scooter, developed in-house by the company, is focused on providing a safer and smoother riding experience, said a company spokesperson in an interview with Urban Milwaukee.

Lime, Bird and Spin are the only companies authorized to provide dockless scooter rental in Milwaukee. The three companies are able to place up to 250 dockless scooters each in an area east of Interstate 43 running from W. Oklahoma Ave. north to the city limits near W. Capitol Dr. that includes Downtown, the East Side, Brewers Hill, Bronzeville, Harambee, Bay View and a special cutout west to N. 22nd St. for Marquette University.

The companies are able to place 100 additional scooters, bringing each company’s total fleet size to 350, in two additional zones (50 scooters per zone) which encompass the rest of the city and are roughly divided by Interstate 94. The three companies pay independent contractors a per-scooter fee to take the scooters home and charge them overnight.

A total of 1,050 scooters are approved to be deployed on Milwaukee streets.

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