REGULATING MOVEMENT Dallas’ renewed electric scooter program includes no-ride zones, where vehicles will shut off if entered, and equity opportunity zones, which are designed to equalize distribution. It also includes slow-ride zones, which are largely concentrated around downtown.
area. If they try to ride through a no-ride zone, their scooter will automatically shut off. In addition to no-ride zones, the city will implement “slow-ride” zones, which will limit how fast scooters can drive. Riders will face a citywide speed limit of 20 mph, and slow-ride zones will reduce that limit to 10 mph, according to the city pro- gram’s website. Scooters will auto- matically slow down to the required speed when traveling through slow- ride zones. White Rock Lake, Olive Shapiro Park, Flag Pole Hill Park, Norbuck Park and Tenison Park are among the more than 30 no-ride zones in the Lake Highlands and Lakewood
be required to address sidewalk obstructions or misplaced scooters within two hours of a complaint, Scott said. Advanced technology Jamie Perkins, director of com- munications for Superpedestrian, said the company uses Vehicle Intel- ligence, a software that performs safety checks and detects things like tipped over scooters, she said. Other scooter companies use similar programs that immediately alert the company’s operations team to cor- rect the issue. Paul Ridley, Dallas City Council member for District 14, said that while he has confidence in the pro-
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not used often. Austin officials said they saw success with their electric scooter program, which rolled out in 2018, through things like quick response times to regulation violations and clear designations for where and when scooters are allowed. Joseph Al-Hajeri, mobility demand program manager for the Austin Department of Transportation, said he believes Dallasites could embrace the pro- gram if the city’s scooter regulations are successfully implemented. “Allow the industry to do what it’s supposed to do and work with the providers closely—don’t become their enemies—and really try to understand what the public is need- Many of the issues the city of Dal- las faced with its previous electric scooter program involved incor- rectly parked scooters that cluttered sidewalks, Scott said. There were also a number of safety concerns in Deep Ellum and Uptown, includ- ing riders frequently on sidewalks. Despite some of the negative back- lash the original program garnered, Scott said it was important for the city to reinstate electric scooters as a mobility option in Dallas. Under the new program, electric scooters will only be allowed to operate from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., and riders must be 16 years old or older. Whether rented from the city or pri- vately owned, scooters will not be allowed in “no-ride” zones, which include sidewalks, trails, parks, pla- zas, or any roads with a speed limit of 35 mph or higher, Scott said. In no-ride zones, riders must dis- mount their scooters and walk the vehicles through the designated ing,” Al-Hajeri said. Stricter regulations
Lake Highlands and Lakewood area No-ride zone
Equity opportunity zone
gram’s new regu- lations, it will be impossible to tell how well they work until the scooters get rolling. For example, if
areas. Slow-ride zones are mainly centralized in downtown Dallas, according to the city’s online map of the zones. Rid- ers will receive a warning as they approach no-ride and slow-ride zones. “We’re looking
WE FIND THAT MOST RIDERS ACTUALLY WANT TO DO THE RIGHT THING, SO IT’S SORT OF [A MATTER OF] PROVIDING THEM THE KNOWLEDGE THAT THEY NEED TO BE ABLE TO DO SO. JACOB TUGENDRAJCH, COMMUNICATIONS LEAD FOR LIME
FOREST LN.
riders try operating electric scooters on sidewalks, the GPS technology is capa- ble of shutting the vehicle down, Rid- ley said. However, he is unsure of how accurate that GPS technology will be in distinguishing a sidewalk from the street it runs alongside. “It’s not uncommon for there to be great claims for the latest and great- est technology, but sometimes it doesn’t work out in practice like it’s been advertised,” Ridley said. “I’m optimistic that won’t happen, but we won’t know until we see how [the scooters] operate on the streets.” Community members can voice concerns, questions or ideas about the electric scooter
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for this program to have structure, to have organiza- tion and to really be more usable by everyone in the city of Dallas,” Scott said. With the previous program, elec- tric scooters were deployed into any area of the city without regulations on how many scooters could be located in certain areas, Scott said. With the new program, scooter den- sity will be managed by a regulation prohibiting having more than 25% of each vendor’s fleet—125 scooters—in high-activity areas of Dallas. The scooter companies will
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