Electric scooters will make a return to Greater Lafayette come late June, but with greater restrictions on where they can be parked and driven, as well as how many there will be.
Scooter companies Spin and Gotcha -- based in San Francisco and South Carolina -- have been approved to bring in their own scooters in the wake of Bird scooters flying the coop. City leaders and many citizens complained Bird had flooded the market late last year and West Lafayette economic development aide Julia Zuchkov says the city doesn’t want to be overwhelmed again.
“I think that we estimated in the thousands for the Birds and considering we had identified only 400 parking spots.” She says.
Zuchkov explains that new parking spots and sidewalk regulations have since been created, and the city may expand the number allowed if there is enough public and business interest in scooter usage.
The city has also instituted a scooter registration system that will cost any scooter company tens – and perhaps hundreds – of thousands of dollars a year to operate in the city.
