Everett’s Lime Scooter Pilot Project Off To A Bumpy Start

Last month we told you about the City of Everett entering into a pilot project to see how Lime Electric Scooters would work in the city. In that story we also posted a link to the city’s pilot agreement with LIME and this link to the City of Everett’s code 46.80 that covers motorized foot scooters.

Some early comments and observations coming into the Everett City Council meeting last week as well as online are showing concerns over people not following the rules. At the Wednesday night council meeting Jim Staniford who owns the Vintage Cafe on Hewitt just west of Colby related the story of how within the first 24 hours of the scooters being on the street the Washington State Patrol put a rider in jail for DUI. He also related how the majority of the people he had seen were not wearing helmets and were riding on the sidewalk. He explained how the current way for people to get helmets was not working as there was no way for people to get free helmets from City Hall or the Downtown Everett Business Association in the evening when those two distribution points were closed.

Saniford offered to have scooter helmets available in his business and suggested that many other business locations open evenings and weekends would likely also be happy to act as helmet distribution locations. Mayor Franklin told him she appreciated the feedback and that is exactly what the city is looking for with this pilot project. She reiterated that helmets were required and that any bike helmet would do and many people already have those in their homes.

Council member Scott Murphy raised the question of enforcement of the rules and mentioned seeing the scooters being ridden on the sidewalks, by people without helmets. Both prohibited under city code.

Everett Police Chief Dan Templeman advised the Police Department was currently in an “education phase” right now with officers, especially those on the foot beat downtown, making a lot of contacts but no citations yet. In addition to questions about the rules, people on social media have posted about the scooters only being available in the downtown area and not having the opportunity to try them out in their various neighborhoods around the city. Also many kids under 18 have been observed riding on sidewalks without helmets.

The pilot project has an initial authorization of up to 100 scooters and is scheduled to run through Labor Day as LIME and the City of Everett look at what works and what needs adjustment for the program to receive full approval.