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Electric scooters debut in Springfield

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SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) — As of September 1, electric scooters are now available for rent in Springfield, but only in certain areas.

These include:

— the campus of Missouri State University

— the commercial part of Commercial Street

— along Boonville Avenue from Commercial Street to downtown

— downtown Water St. in the north to Elm St. in the south

In Missouri State on Thursday, the Student Government Association and Bird, the company bringing electric scooters to Springfield, introduced students to the latest transportation option around campus.

Drew Minnis, a junior, was among the first to try one.

“That’s pretty cool,” he said. “It slows down (on its own) in front of some university buildings, so you don’t go too fast and pass people. That kind of threw me for a loop for a second. Once you have learned how to navigate the app and load money into it, you can reserve it. I think it’s about 39 cents a mile. It might be a bit pricey as there is a $3 minimum, but they do offer membership options so you can buy an unlimited pass.

At MSU, e-scooters are supposed to be ridden in areas marked for bikes and depending on where you are in the city center. We advise you above all not to walk on the sidewalks.

But not always.

“They have the technology that shows you on the app where you’re allowed to be on or off the sidewalk,” said Springfield Public Works traffic engineer Grady Porter. “Basically, these follow the same rules as the bikes in our city. And the reality is that some people will ride on the sidewalk where they’re not supposed to, but they just have to be careful. We’re not here to write tickets. We just want them to be used safely and appropriately.

Other rules include:

— you must wear a helmet and have a driver’s license

— you must yield to pedestrians

– speed limits for scooters are 15 mph in most areas and 10 mph on greenway trails

– scooters must stay off roads where the car speed limit is over 30 mph

— rentals will be stopped at 10 p.m. each evening

Bird, the electric scooter company, is present in 400 cities around the world and has extensive experience in the field. They were the first company to contact the city of Springfield and get approval after the city council approved electric scooter rentals in May.

But based on the problems in other cities, local businesses certainly had concerns.

“The biggest concerns are what you’ve heard nationally about people using them inappropriately,” Porter said. “They will leave them on the sidewalks. They will throw them in the streets. They will just be careless in their operation of the scooters. But there are ways for the city to track this. There are ways for the supplier to know where each scooter is. And the city required that the scooters be picked up every night and returned to the deployment location, so they weren’t strewn across the sidewalks in the morning like you’ve seen in other cities. This was one of our big concerns. »

Also, as you’ll notice along sidewalks in areas where e-scooters are permitted, the city has placed green rectangles marked “e-scooter parking only”, which should be treated the same as a parking spot. car park.

“A lot of people use the term ‘dock’, but either way the scooter is on its kickstand and sitting in an area where it’s allowed to be,” Porter explained. “These areas are marked as your street parking spots. We can’t say everyone will be forced to put their scooters there but there are ways and measures our supplier has to make sure they park there with incentives for their rides and if they are still charged if they stopped at a location that is not an approved parking spot. We want to ensure these scooters are parked in an efficient manner that remains attractive and does not disrupt business. We have also limited the number to 30 scooters at MSU and 20 downtown until we find that there are not a number of nuisance issues.

So, with only 50 scooters available in limited areas at present, what is the future of e-scooter expansion? (By the way, if you are wondering if you are driving a scooter outside the authorized areas, it will automatically turn off)

“We haven’t set any parameters on when or how we will grow. We’ll let the data and the providers determine that,” Porter replied. “So as we become more comfortable with technology to prevent these nuisances and address these public safety concerns, we will slowly grow. We also don’t want scooters sitting all over the place that aren’t being used. But other companies can apply for a commercial license, and we will work with them because we have this supplier.

Electric scooters are expected to be aimed at young people, but they are open to everyone.

“I think it’s going to be a great program for this campus,” Minnis said of the potential use of electric scooters in the state of Missouri. “And I’m delighted.”

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