December, 2018: The San Francisco-based ride-share company Spin recently asked Lexington City Council for permission to launch an e-scooter rental program. If all goes according to plan, there could be dozens of rentable e-scooters on Lexington’s streets by spring of 2019.
As of today, Spin is the only company legally allowed to put rentable transportation devices in Lexington. According to this one-year pilot program, however, Lexington officials only allowed Spin to bring pedal bikes into the city.
Members of Lexington’s various transportation committees will need to vote on changing Spin’s contract in upcoming meetings. Most Lexington officials, however, believe there’s enough support for this issue to be resolved quickly.
Lexington is well aware of the many issues surrounding rentable e-scooters, especially after witnessing the challenges Louisville recently faced. In the summer of 2018, Santa Monica-based company Bird planted dozens of its e-scooters in Louisville without a permit.
This initial launch was so chaotic that Louisville had to put a temporary ban on Bird devices. As of today, however, e-scooters from both Bird and rival company Lime can be found throughout Louisville.
To minimize the risk of safety issues in Lexington, officials say they will gradually release e-scooters into the city. Although nobody’s sure how many e-scooters Spin will be allowed to place in Lexington, it most likely will be no higher than 500.
In research shared with city officials, Spin showed that e-scooters were about ten-times as popular as other rentable transportation devices. That’s an impressive figure considering Lexington residents already take approximately 7,500 rides on Spin’s pedal bikes per month.
In a separate agreement, University of Kentucky (UK) has allowed Spin to put rentable bikes on its Lexington campus. Leadership at the university, however, hasn’t agreed to let Spin introduce e-scooters into UK.
Safety officials said all of Spin’s rentable bikes will still be available as the company launches its e-scooters. City leaders will also use the same tracking technology to monitor e-scooter usage the same way they are tracking Spin’s bicycles.
Founded in 2016, Spin now has rentable devices in nine American cities and five college campuses. For more information on Spin’s services, please visit the company’s website on this link.
Will Spin scooters cause injuries?
Scooters themselves rarely cause injuries. Injuries are caused by riders who fall off of scooters. However, in some cases scooter riders are injured through no fault of their own. Examples of this include faulty brakes on scooters, unsafe road conditions or negligent motorists who hit scooter drivers. If you’re injured in one of these scenarios be sure to call us for a free consultation.
Otherwise, wear a helmet, be safe and enjoy the ride!
