LAKEWOOD, Ohio — A month after unveiling its e-scooter share pilot program, Lakewood officers are completely satisfied with the neighborhood response.
“The pilot is going well from our standpoint,” Lakewood City Planner Dave Baas stated. “Just based on the feedback we’ve received from the community, and we have been doing check-ins with the vendors every two weeks, we’ve seen complaints have gone down significantly while the usage of scooters has shown growth.
“In fact, the only email I received on scooters in the last week and a half was actually a compliment from someone happy the program is here. The pilot is definitely meeting our expectations from the start.”
Vendors Spin, Superpedestrian and Bird are presently working 90 e-scooters for residents 18 and older out of a dozen automobile stations positioned all through the neighborhood.
The corporations just lately reported roughly 450 rides per week. Lakewood receives 15 cents per each e-scooter rental journey as a part of a Cuyahoga County license settlement.
There are a dozen e-scooter stations positioned all through Lakewood. (John Benson/cleveland.com)
Lakewood Police Chief Kevin Kaucheck stated going into the pilot program his issues have been minimal.
“As I drive through Lakewood, I notice that most scooters get returned to the share stations either by users or the scooter companies,” Kaucheck stated. “Very few are found abandoned in other locations.
“I’ve seen many people utilizing the scooters. They seem to be popular with our residents. The most likely reason that a person would get a ticket while riding a scooter is for not obeying traffic control devices — red lights or stop signs.”
As riders get acclimated to the new e-scooter program, the town just lately reminded residents of safety tips when zipping across the neighborhood.
A latest metropolis posting instructed carrying a helmet when using a scooter is extremely really helpful.
![There are a dozen e-scooter stations located throughout Lakewood](https://www.cleveland.com/resizer/yakXDf29oiRjXMrorfv5ckzKTGU=/1280x0/smart/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/advancelocal/JZ5JQNCLPBF3DFNSWTZTHWD3RQ.jpeg)
There are a dozen e-scooter stations positioned all through Lakewood. (John Benson/cleveland.com)
Also, riders are to journey within the bike lane or as close to to the best facet of the journey lane as practicable whereas obeying all visitors guidelines, indicators, indicators and management units. They ought to keep away from using on sidewalks except shifting on to an acceptable parking space.
“Our biggest concern is to reinforce proper ride behavior,” Baas stated. “These devices and electric bikes are treated the exact same as any other bike in terms of our traffic code.”
One of the problems early on concerned the parking of scooters.
“They should always park bikes and scooters in an upright position and in an area that doesn’t obstruct pedestrians or vehicle traffic or driveways,” Baas stated. “All three vendors have routine rebalancing a few times a week.
“They come through the city, pick up scooters and bring them back to the docking stations.”
Read extra information from the Sun Post Herald right here.