Scooters Return To Milwaukee’s Streets, This Time Permanently
Lime and Spin allowed to bring their scooters back under permanent regulatory framework.
Lime scooters in Bay View. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
Dockless electric scooters are back on Milwaukee’s streets.
The two authorized providers, Lime and Spin, were allowed to deploy their scooters Friday.
And unlike in years past, they don’t have a hard end date for which they need to be removed. The city approved a permanent regulatory program in March, ending a five-year period where three separate “pilot studies” were conducted.
The Department of Public Works still maintains substantial regulatory control over the private operators, which allow their scooters to be rented via smartphone applications. The companies must place the scooters in targeted zones to ensure widespread distribution and can be penalized for safety issues.
The city also hopes to derive substantial annual revenue from the companies, which it would reinvest in related infrastructure for bikes and scooters and compliance monitoring.
A March DPW presentation included annual fees of $100 per scooter deployed and $0.25 per ride. “That’s $200,000 upfront before any trips are even made,” said Public Works Commissioner Jerrel Kruschke on March 6 to the Public Works Committee. “This is anything from a minimum $300,000 to $400,000 revenue source long-term for the city.”
At the same meeting, multi-modal planning manager Michael Amsden said the city would work with the nonprofit Bublr Bikes and the Milwaukee County Transit System (MCTS) to create “mobility hubs” at key bus stops. He said the permanent regulatory framework, based on observations from other cities, would encourage the companies to collaborate with MCTS and Bublr. The city’s dock-based bikeshare provider, Bublr, continues to operate year-round.
During the final pilot study, which lasted from September 2022 through December 2023, the city recorded approximately 800,000 rides and received $400,000 in revenue. A public dashboard shows all trips taken since 2019.
For additional details on why the city dropped one private operator and how ridership has fared, see our March coverage.
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More about the Milwaukee scooter rollout
- Scooters Return To Milwaukee’s Streets, This Time Permanently - Jeramey Jannene - May 17th, 2024
- Scooters Could Net Milwaukee $400,000 Per Year - Jeramey Jannene - Mar 12th, 2024
- Full Legalization of Scooters Ends Up In City Budget - Jeramey Jannene - Nov 3rd, 2023
- Dockless Scooter Pilot Program Begins - Sophie Bolich - Sep 2nd, 2022
- Transportation: Milwaukee Wants Your Input on Future of Dockless Scooters - Jeramey Jannene - Oct 19th, 2021
- Transportation: Scooters Banned From Downtown - Jeramey Jannene - Aug 3rd, 2021
- Transportation: Dockless Scooters Will Return in 2021, With Restrictions - Jeramey Jannene - Apr 1st, 2021
- Transportation: Scooters Could Return To City In May - Jeramey Jannene - Mar 10th, 2021
- City Hall: Scooters Could Return to Milwaukee - Jeramey Jannene - Sep 30th, 2020
- Transportation: Lime Unveils ‘Group Ride’ Scooters - Jeramey Jannene - Sep 6th, 2019
Read more about Milwaukee scooter rollout here
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This is a sad mistake. The revenues won’t be worth the hassles and the injuries won’t justify the claimed “convenience.”of vehicles ridden (illegally) on sidewalks and dumped wherever riders please. Like drivers who ignore red lights and stop signs,
the lack of any real law enforcement consequence will make any enacted legal restrictions laughable. Watch.
Gerry is 100% correct!
I have complained for years about bike and scooter riding on the crowded narrow sidewalks of the Third Ward along Water Street and its non-pedestrian-friendly bridge. Absolutely nothing has changed regarding enforcement of these daily infractions. Could you at the very least put up signs? Is anyone listening? I’m fed up with walkers being forced to play chicken with reckless riders!
I have complained for years about speeding, failing to yield, and red light running on the crowded narrow streets of the Third Ward along Water Street and its non-pedestrian-friendly bridge. Absolutely nothing has changed regarding enforcement of these daily infractions. Could you at the very least put up signs? Is anyone listening? I’m fed up with walkers being forced to play chicken with reckless drivers!
On streets in the 3rd Ward where reckless scooter operating is a problem, speed bumps should be liberally used which will slow down persons on scooters along with vehicles. I agree with all of the above comments. Scooters are worth the grief and they are usually found abandoned all over the city.
As a person who needs a cane to walk, I find scooters extremely dangerous. I can’t tell you how many times I had to detour onto a lawn to avoid tripping on one or more scooters carelessly thrown in to middle of a busy sidewalk. It’s bad enough crossing intersections when I have the “walk” signal but drivers are turning on red at best and ignoring signals at worst.
Thank you, powers that be, for making the life of a pedestrian even more dangerous by allowing scooters.