Milwaukee Makes First Move on Scooter Crackdown After Sidewalk Crash

An individual rides a scooter on a sidewalk in downtown Milwaukee. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Milwaukee officials spent more than 90 minutes Thursday debating the safety and regulation of dockless scooters, but stopped short of recommending any major changes.

But that doesn’t mean the discussion is over.

The council could ultimately impose a downtown speed limit, rip up the city’s agreement with Lime and establish a new fine structure.

But most of those things will have to wait.

The Public Safety & Health Committee held a proposal to impose a 5 mph scooter speed limit Downtown and competing proposals to dramatically boost fines for sidewalk riding.

Ald. Robert Bauman introduced the proposals after a June 16 collision in which a scooter rider traveling illegally on a downtown sidewalk struck and seriously injured Dave Wolz, the owner of La Cage nightclub. Wolz, who was leaving Old German Beer Hall, required spinal surgery and suffered other broken bones.

A downtown speed limit

Bauman called sidewalk riding “pretty rampant” and said the city’s existing approach is failing.

“The law is being violated repeatedly. [The Milwaukee Police Department] does not enforce it,” he said.

MPD has issued three citations in 2026 for sidewalk riding. The individual who struck Wolz was charged with a felony because of the severity of the injuries suffered.

Bauman proposed reducing the maximum scooter speed to 5 mph across a large portion of Downtown and the Marquette University campus.

“If you reduce the speed that these vehicles travel everywhere in the downtown area, then you also reduce the speed on sidewalks,” Bauman said. “Given the fact that we can’t stop the problem, I want to mitigate the problem.”

The speed limit is currently 15 mph, though the Department of Public Works (DPW) already uses geofencing to impose lower limits and no-ride zones in certain areas with a high potential for pedestrian conflicts, such as the lakefront.

Bauman acknowledged that the restriction would also slow riders who are legally operating in the street and make scooters less useful as a transportation option.

DPW Commissioner Jerrel Kruschke opposed a blanket 5 mph limit, though he said the department is open to creating additional slow zones.

“To do a blanket 5 mph of Downtown does not provide a full transportation option for our residents,” Kruschke said.

Ald. Mark Chambers Jr., the council’s leading scooter advocate, suggested a compromise of 10 mph throughout Downtown, which Bauman said he would accept. But the committee ultimately held the proposal to allow DPW to conduct an additional review.

Ald. Peter Burgelis warned that limiting scooters to 5 mph could make riding in traffic less safe. Burgelis and Kruschke also cautioned against regulating scooters and bicycles more aggressively than automobiles.

“I do not want to be more punitive to micromobility than we are to cars that are actually out there killing people,” Kruschke said. He noted that nine people have been killed in Milwaukee traffic crashes this year, and hundreds more have been injured.

Kruschke said Milwaukee is ready for micromobility, pointing to about 2.75 million scooter rides during the past two years. The city has installed 20 miles of protected bike lanes, with another 34.5 miles in development.

Bauman reached the opposite conclusion.

“That leads me to a conclusion that maybe Milwaukee is not ready for micromobility because our street infrastructure is not suited for those vehicles,” he said. Bauman endorsed building a network of protected lanes, but suggested scooters should wait until such a network exists.

Mike Amsden, DPW multimodal transportation manager, said observations typically show 70% to 80% of Lime riders using the street instead of the sidewalk. He characterized that as “pretty good, when you think of traffic safety and traffic laws in general,” while acknowledging that the city wants to improve compliance.

“We want to evaluate, observe, do better,” Amsden said.

Frustrations, praise for Lime

Lime representatives did not attend the meeting, drawing criticism from several council members. But Amsden said the company was told by DPW it did not need to appear.

“They have been a good partner over the last couple of years,” he said.

Amsden said Lime is not contractually required to prevent every instance of sidewalk riding. Instead, it must implement specific mitigation measures, including rider education and GPS-based geofencing.

“They are doing that as required by the terms of the contract,” he said.

Bauman was unconvinced. He compared Lime to a monopoly and criticized the company’s ability to collect fines from its own customers for violations.

“It’s almost ludicrous, actually, that we’re incentivizing them to permit sidewalk riding,” he said.

Others expressed surprise that Lime fines its own riders and gets to keep the payments.

Lime is the only dockless scooter company currently operating in Milwaukee. City rules allow two operators, but Spin withdrew from the market this spring. Lime’s current agreement, signed in May 2024, was extended through 2027, DPW officials said.

Bauman said he intends to introduce legislation at the next council meeting to terminate the agreement and negotiate a new contract that would impose penalties payable to the city when a scooter rider fails to comply with safety requirements.

“I don’t know that we want to deal with Lime anymore,” said the downtown alderman.

Ald. Sharlen P. Moore opposes terminating the contract and said the larger transportation-safety issue is dangerous driving.

“I want us to build a city that creates safety whether you’re in a car, whether you’re walking, biking, scooter — you name it,” she said.

Moore also acknowledged that she has ridden scooters on sidewalks because she felt safer there and did not know until recently that doing so was prohibited.

Ald. Larresa Taylor said scooter injuries should not be minimized by comparing them with the greater number of people injured by automobiles.

“Injuries are injuries, and they can be very life-changing,” she said. “We have to do a little better regulation than what we’re doing.”

Taylor said scooters remain a valuable transportation option and said that she looked forward to riding one to Summerfest to avoid paying for parking. But she called for more regulation, including stronger controls to prevent children from riding.

Lime requires riders to be at least 18, though the city does not independently establish a minimum age.

Bauman, as he has suggested in the past, encouraged DPW to work with Johnny Vassallo‘s Blue Duck scooter company. Vassallo, a Milwaukee entrepreneur, acquired the company during the pandemic, but Amsden said he doesn’t believe it is currently operating. DPW officials said they would explore the option as part of examining adding another operator.

Tenfold increase in fines for riders

The fine for riding a scooter or bicycle on a sidewalk is currently a minimum of $10 and a maximum of $20, which Bauman said was “almost laughable” given how few tickets are written.

“If there is no enforcement, you can make the fine $50,000. I’m not sure it makes a difference,” Bauman acknowledged.

His proposal is to raise the fine tenfold, to a $100 minimum and a $200 maximum.

But Burgelis is proposing to take things several steps further.

He would make the minimum $100, but the max $1,000.

Burgelis also would allow the city to fine Lime and any other provider up to $10,000 per instance of noncompliance with city safety guidelines regarding preventing sidewalk riding, georestrictions and other safety measures.

“The only noncompliance mechanism we have is to pull the contract and pull the plug,” Burgelis said of the current regime.

Bauman didn’t object, but suggested an alternative. “I think the preferred course for the operator accountability is to rewrite the contract,” he said.

Burgelis withdrew his proposal while the City Attorney’s Office reviews whether such a system would be legal and enforceable.

Bauman still wants his version passed, but the committee held off acting. Bauman suggested the council could act on July 14.

“I think this is a no-brainer, frankly,” he said.

But at least one council member thinks there could be unintended consequences.

Committee chair Ald. Scott Spiker questioned whether a substantially higher penalty could make officers even less inclined to issue citations.

Scooter use increasing

Scooter use continues to grow. Trips are up 26% year over year.

Revenue from the program, assessed on a per-trip and per-vehicle basis, is funding the city’s ability to build out related infrastructure.

The city collected approximately $728,000 from the program in 2025 and another $391,000 through May 2026.

Lime issued 4,991 fines to Milwaukee riders last year and suspended or banned approximately 450 users. The city does not currently impose a financial penalty on the company for individual instances of sidewalk riding, but does fine the company if it needs to relocate parking scooters.

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