Update:
FAYETTEVILLE -- Electric scooters have arrived in Fayetteville.
Workers from the company Spin unloaded nearly 50 electric scooters near the city administration building in Fayetteville.
Saturday is the first day the scooters will be available for rent in the city with plans to have up to 250 per its contract with the city.
Spin is one of two companies permitted to have electric scooters operating in the city. Users can unlock the scooters with an app on their phones.
The company plans a small launch in the morning, said Dane Eifling, bicycle and pedestrian programs coordinator with the city.
The other company, Lime, is still working on its permitting, Eifling said. Lime will begin testing its electric scooters next week, he said.
“The first time you do something, it just takes a little longer,” Eifling said.
Razorback Stadium will be a no-ride, no-park zone for the scooters. Fans going to the football game Saturday can ride and park near the stadium, and the geofencing function on the app will show the boundary.
Earlier:
The city and University of Arkansas are finalizing permits and testing equipment and software with two companies, Lime and Spin, both based in San Francisco, according to a news release from the city.
The scooters can be unlocked using a cell phone application. They can be ridden anywhere bicycles are allowed, such as streets and trails. Riding will be prohibited in front of buildings, where people may be coming in and out of doors.
Users should park the scooters at a bike rack or other appropriate area not blocking vehicles or pedestrian access. Taking a picture of the parked scooter will be required to end the device's rental.
Some parts of the city will be designated as no-parking zones, and the scooter will make a noise letting the user know. The area scooters can be used is the same as the roughly 10-square-mile area of downtown and campus the city's VeoRide bike share program uses, according to the release.
The scooters will have a maximum speed of 15 mph, but some parts of the service area, such as campus and heavy pedestrian areas, will set the scooters to automatically slow down.
An ordinance the City Council passed in July allows 250 scooters per vendor, with a cap of 500 in the city.
NW News on 11/08/2019