Ford Motor Co. Latest Entrant In Crowded Austin Scooter Industry

AUSTIN, TEXAS — If you thought Austin has more than enough dock-less electric scooters to fit its needs — what with six companies offering more than 9,000 of the two-wheeled contraptions for use — you'd be wrong: Spin, a ride-share firm owned by the Ford Motor Co. quietly dropped 100 of its versions on local streets on Friday.

And apparently, there' even more planned, the company announced via Twitter. Seeking to enter the crowded scooter market in Austin, Ford plans to increase the number of its vehicles to about 400 as it expands into 100 cities across the country over the next 18 months.

"By combining our strength in automotive research and development with our commitment to connected and autonomous vehicles and our emerging software business, we are expanding our portfolio of scalable mobility solutions intended to provide a seamless transportation experience for the modern consumer," Ford officials wrote in a press advisory.

Clearly, the scooter craze shows no signs of abating. Companies offering them frame them as an alternative to car travel to reach short distances, helping to ease car congestion on city streets. What's more, the scooters are environmental-friendly given that don't emit harmful vapors into the atmosphere

Which is all well and good, but there are drawbacks to the scooter glut too.

Suggesting a troubling trend — or one at least in the making — University of Texas at Austin officials issued a recent warning for students not to drink and scoot. The advice on Wednesday was prompted after an underage UT student sustained serious injuries after crashing a dock-less scooter while allegedly very drunk.

Upon investigating the matter, campus police found the young man inside a bathroom where he had fallen asleep across a sink despite his bloody injuries. Once awake, the injured student told police he thought he was in Port Arthur, Texas

"UTPD caught up with the student in a bathroom, with a bloody face and nose. Officers attempted to talk to the student, but were met only with snoring, as the man was somehow asleep while lying on a bathroom sink," University of Texas Police Department officials wrote in a "Campus Watch" post. "Austin / Travis County EMS arrived and also began trying to wake up the foggy student. The intoxicated student told medics he thought he was in Port Arthur."

Notwithstanding his injuries, the 19-year-old was given a break that night as police opted not to press charges, according to their report: "Because a friend called 911, the student received no charges whatsoever, despite some very poor decisions about his safety. The student was transported to the hospital for both his facial injuries from the scooter, and due to the high degree of alcohol intoxication."

In the midst of the scooter mania, medical officials have reported an uptick in injuries stemming from their use. Despite their stealthy nature and questionable lighting, the city allows scooters to be rented out at night rather than limiting their use for daytime riding. Consequently, most injuries resulting from a recent string of accidents have largely occurred at night.

One scooter accident in 2017 claimed a rider's life. Last December, police said a 25-year-old man was traveling southbound along the 10700 block of North Lamar Boulevard when he veered onto the opposite lanes of traffic. He was was killed after being struck by a vehicle, and was pronounced dead at the scene. That incident also occurred at night, just before 1:30 a.m., according to police.

There were no known fatalities in 2018, but a series of serious injuries related to scooter riding. Just four days before medics tended to the UT student in the incident this week, medics were dispatched to the 1400 block of West Cesar Chavez Street from where they transported a man to Dell Seton Medical Center for treatment of critical, life-threatening injuries while riding a scooter.

Another serious injury near the UT-Austin campus resulted in October, when a man in his 40s was rushed to Dell Seton Medical Center for treatment of injuries that medics dded as serious and potentially life-threatening. The incident occurred at around 8:30 p.m. at West 29th and Guadalupe streets, according to Austin-Travis County EMS medics.

And in August, medics were called to the 1100 block of South Congress Avenue after a woman in her 50s took a spill on a scooter, sustaining life-threatening injuries in the process. The woman had been riding a Lime scooter, prompting a response from a company spokeswoman when contacted by Patch.

"Rider safety is our number one priority, which is why we urge riders to practice safe riding using helmets both in notices on the app and on the actual scooter," Mary Caroline Pruitt wrote in a prepared statement. "In order to unlock a Lime scooter for the first time, all riders must go through an in-app tutorial that includes helmet safety. We're constantly developing and implementing tools in the app to further promote safe riding and scooter use, and will continue to keep the safety of the community our top priority."

Officials at Bird, another scooter company operating in the city, responded to the uptick in injuries, staging an October event outside Austin City Hall on Thursday during which they be give away free helmets. Riding demonstrations were also featured, and safety tips were shared.

By the following month, Bird officials launched a new feature on their app designed to report improperly parked or damaged vehicles in order to dispatch workers to quickly remedy such issues. Dubbed the "Community Mode," the feature also dispatches Bird mechanics to remove scooters reported as damaged to ensure they are taken out of the fleet, officials said in an email to Patch.

“We want to give the broader communities in which we operate the opportunity to partner with us as we help cities alleviate problems associated with congestion and carbon emissions,” Bird CEO Travis VanderZanden said in a prepared statement. “Community Mode gives any individual the power to engage with Bird in real time, so that we can work together on making our streets safer and people friendly. If we want to get cars off the road and make a real impact in the fight against climate change, it’s going to take a collective effort — one we hope Community Mode can help foster.”

But the moves designed with safety in mind hasn't stemmed litigation from being filed. According to the Washington Post, eight people sued both Lime and Bird, accusing the companies of "gross negligence" in litigation seeking class-action status. Also named as defendants are electric scooters providers Segway and Xiaomi. In the suit filed late October, plaintiffs accuse the scooter companies of failing to provide safety instruction for riders.

One need only go outdoors to witness the growing popularity of scooters given the now-ubiquitous sight of mostly young people using the gadget to get around town. Typically, users pay $1 to rent the things and then pay somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 cents per minute to ride them.

Not everyone's a fan of scooters, and many aren't likely to ever use them. An Austin advocate for the wheelchair-bound issued a public plea for scooter etiquette after encountering the vehicles being abandoned wantonly on public sidewalks. Negotiating around the errant contraptions is exponentially more difficult for a person confined to a wheelchair than a pedestrian able to simply step across them.

"On my way to work this morning the sidewalks were blocked by Bird scooters in not one, but three places. Totally unacceptable!!" Austin resident Emily Shryock wrote on Facebook in a since-deleted post from August that has since been removed before being viewed thousands of times. "Another day in paradise," she bemoaned in sharing photos of the obstructions.

Some people are simply getting fed up with encountering the growing number of scooters in the city if sightings of unused ones in odd places is any indication. In October, Fox 7 reported the emergence of a row of Lime trees in downtown Austin — not bearing fruit, but with dozens of Lime scooters hanging from branches along Congress Avenue.

Increasingly, Patch has encountered scooters thrown onto or into trash receptacles in scenes increasingly more common as the fleet of two-wheeled vehicles continue to grow. To wit, Patch came across the scene not far from the UT-Austin campus this past Sunday:

Photo by Tony Cantú/Patch staff

The circumstances leading to their trashing are the stuff of conjecture, either resulting from riders unsatisfied with their rides or the work of those preferring to walk but increasingly encountering scooters thrown haphazardly on city sidewalks. It's a fairly safe bet it's the latter.

Related stories:

E-Scooter Providers Bird, Lime Sued As Injuries Mount

Austin Woman's Plea For Scooter Etiquette Gains Traction

Woman Hurt In S. Austin Crash Was On Scooter After All

Bird Reps To Give Away Helmets Outside Austin City Hall

Man Seriously Hurt After Fall From Scooter Near UT-Austin

Lyft Unleashes Its Own Fleet Of Scooters To The Austin Mix

Man On Scooter Dies In North Austin Collision

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>>> Discarded scooters at bus stop, Guadalupe and 31st streets, seen Dec. 19, 2018. Photo by Tony Cantú/Patch staff