Scooters Still Getting Riders in Winter, Raking in Cash

Lime scooters in Bay View. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Love ’em or hate ’em, the dockless electric scooters dotting Milwaukee’s streets are popular. And 2025 is poised to bring in record-breaking trip and revenue totals.

From when the scooters returned in mid-May to the end of 2024, 971,980 trips were taken. The city earned $559,000 in revenue.

Last March, Department of Public Works officials said the city could earn up to $400,000 annually. They undershot by almost 40%.

“That’s real money,” said Alderman Robert Bauman Wednesday when DPW officials presented the revenue total to the Public Works Committee.

The money is intended to be spent on compliance monitoring and safety improvements, including dedicated scooter parking areas and scooter/cycling infrastructure.

2025 Promises To Be Record-Breaking

For the first time, scooters are still on city streets through the winter. A permanent regulatory framework was adopted last year that allows for year-round deployment.

The city has approved two operators, Lime and Spin, and charges an annual fee of $100 per scooter deployed and $0.25 per ride.

“There have been around 13,000 trips in January,” said DPW senior transportation planner Zac Roder.

Roder said there are approximately 550 scooters currently deployed. That’s a fraction of the more than 2,000 scooters that Lime alone deployed for much of 2024, but was expected. The companies are required to deploy scooters across the city during warmer months and can see their cap increased for complying with the city’s regulations, but the total number of scooters is reduced in the winter.

A full report on the 2024 program, said Roder, is expected to be released Friday. Prior reports included data about complaints and ridership hot spots.

For more on the scooters, see our October coverage.

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