Scooter Share Coming To Portland, Permits Issued

PORTLAND, OR — The Portland Bureau of Transportation issued the first two permits to scooter-share companies Skip and Bird on Wednesday. The scooters could be ready to rent as soon as this week, officials said.

PBOT recently launched the 120-day Shared Scooter Pilot program, which will end Nov. 20. They'll survey Portlanders during and after the pilot to "determine whether scooters are compatible with the safe, efficient and equitable operation of Portland's transportation system," a news release said.

"I'm very happy we were able to stand up this pilot as quickly as we did," said Interim Transportation Director Chris Warner. 'This is a rapidly changing industry, and we wanted to be flexible and nimble in setting up this pilot. Portlanders will now have a chance to try this new way of getting around, and we'll have the opportunity to see if scooters work in Portland and help us meet our safety, mobility, equity and climate action goals."

The news release says the program sets conditions for the use of scooters. Both companies will get deploy their share of 2,500 total scooters, 200 of which can be deployed in the first week of operation.

Willamette Week reported that scooter share company Lime, which has not received a permit, had a glitch in its system leading to the app falsely claiming the availability of scooters.

The city also set the requirement that each company send a portion of their scooters to East Portland in an effort to "further citywide equity goals," the release says.

While PBOT will take action to teach scooter riders, Skip and Bird will be required to educate their users on requirements set by the city:

• wear a helmet
• not ride on sidewalks
• not ride in city parks
• park scooters on the sidewalk close to the curb
• not interfere with pedestrians

See more at the Portland website

Article image Justin Sullivan/Getty Images News/Getty Images