They’re baaaaack!

By Nancy Black

Those little green and white — and in my opinion dangerous — pests are back. No, I don’t mean annoying flies or mosquitoes. I mean annoying electric scooters and bikes. Don’t get me wrong. I would love it if the City of Dallas could successfully set up an electronic scooter or bike-sharing program like most big cities have. But for some reason, it just doesn’t seem to work here in Dallas. Or, at least, it hasn’t in the past.

When scooters and bikes were first introduced to our communities, it was a mess — literally. Mounds of scooters and bikes were soon found scattered around neighborhoods, and all those devoted For the Love of the Lake volunteers pulled more than one bike from the lake. The program just didn’t work. So, the city council shut it down.

Hopefully learning from mistakes of the past, the Dallas City Council is now allowing the company Lime (in addition to Bird and Superpedestrian) to return to our city’s streets. In a statement to the press, Kelly Pierce, Lime’s operations coordinator for Dallas, said: “Lime is excited to launch in Dallas and we expect this new and improved e-scooter sharing program to be a huge success for riders and the entire city. We’ve worked with the city to design a program that addresses the concerns of the previous pilot like street clutter and tidiness and we understand the key is getting it right so we’re happy to be patient.” 

He added, “This time around, riders, pedestrians and everyone else can expect a more organized and tidy program that all of Dallas can enjoy and we are thrilled to be deploying 500 e-scooters today [May 24].” Bird and Superpedestrian will also be allowed 500 scooters each.

God Bless. Godspeed, City of Dallas. But please, God, don’t speed!

That’s how people got killed or maimed last time. Supposedly, they are limiting the speed on the scooters this go round, so ignorant drunk people in Deep Ellum can’t zip to their deaths as fast anymore. And they are limiting the times of day and night the scooters can operate.

Lime’s mission is “to build a future where transportation is shared, affordable and carbon-free.” I am all for that! But without helmets, proper instructions on use and maybe a required lesson or two, my fear is the scooters will, once again, become more of an obstacle than a benefit for the city. But what do I know? I’m just an old lady who can show you my multiple moped scars from the 1970s.