Electric scooters are back in Milwaukee. Don't ruin them for everyone else. | Opinion
Well Milwaukee, for better or for worse, electric scooters are back for good.
The city's Public Works department said after three pilot studies on a variety of e-scooter vendors which monitored costs, safety and usage, it is bringing back the urban transport contraptions from the companies Lime and Spin.
Scooters are a convenient, cheap and green way to go short distances. They’re way faster than walking. You don’t show up sweaty and disheveled like bicyclists and you look way cooler than anyone has ever looked riding a Segway.
Sean Combs goes by many names. His new one should be 'woman beater.'
Beyond the ability to offer people another option, Milwaukee also made a non-insignificant amount of money, $400,000, during the final pilot study from 2022 to 2023. That profit is also baked into the the new program. Lime and Spin will pay the city $100 for each scooter deployed, and $.25 for each trip recorded. That’s roughly $200,000 for the scooters alone, and, if ridership matches previous years, another $200,000 for rides.
But if you’re mad about the permanent return of e-scooters - don’t be mad at the scooter. The scooter is not the problem. People are the problem.
The official 'Scootering Social Contract'
Everything you hate about scooters is because some schmo is breaking the Scootering Social Contract, which is something I created but is basically a combination of the city's actual rules and regulations combined with the seemingly lost art of common sense and decency:
Rule #1: Park your scooter upright and in the right spots. The biggest complaint from most people, including myself, is the fact that they are dockless. Without some kind of dock that designates the end of your ride, it's very common to see scooters strewn across city sidewalks like used gym towels. It's an annoyance for able bodied people but it’s a liability for people walking on sidewalks who are blind or in a wheelchair. It's not hard to take the extra time to make sure that your scooter is parked standing up and out of people's way.
Rule #2: Don't ride on the sidewalk. We have many bike lanes and are developing even more. If you're afraid of sharing the road with cars because you don't trust Milwaukee drivers, you can either take side streets with less traffic or accept that riding a scooter may not be for you. There is inherent risk by choosing to ride one of these things. You don't get to mitigate that risk by terrorizing pedestrians walking on the sidewalk.
Rule #3: Just make safer choices. Wear a helmet. Watch for the road for potholes. Follow traffic laws like stop signs and stoplights. Maybe don't max out on the top speed.
How will we enforce this scootering social contract?
Unclear considering we don't really know how the city is going to enforce the minimal rules they have put forward. My suggestion is citizen arrests or public shaming. We could even go medieval and create special scooter stocks to put on display in the Deer District.
But this is an opportunity to show that we can govern ourselves. So, this summer, don’t be the reason we can’t have nice things.
Kristin Brey is the "My Take" columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee has electric scooters again. Don’t ruin them