Electric scooters are now back on Sacramento streets for rental. But bring your wipes

Electric scooters are back in Sacramento, ready for rent. But bring your wipes.

Two scooter companies, Bird and Spin, have the OK this week to begin putting scooters on the streets for rental and other operators may soon follow, city officials said.

However, the city has yet to see the return of the once-popular electric bikes. The city’s main previous purveyor, Uber, pulled its Jump bikes from city streets a few months ago after the coronavirus pandemic hit, and has since sold its e-bike business to a competitor.

City officials said this week’s return of scooters, however, will relaunch what had become a notable new mode of transportation that had been slowly spreading from the central city out into neighborhoods before the virus hit.

Sacramento had been a national leading city in e-rental popularity.

“Like with so many other aspects of everyday life before COVID-19, people were disappointed to see scooters and bikes pulled off the streets,” city transportation planning manager Jennifer Donlon Wyant said. “We’re excited to see people utilize shared-rideables and enjoy this type of transportation again.”

Wyant said the city is requiring the rental companies to do more cleaning of the shared devices. The city is also asking renters to be protecting themselves by “using disinfecting wipes to wipe high touch surfaces such as handlebars, brakes, throttle and/or locking cables before and after each ride.”

Riders are required to park the scooters at bike racks or city designated drop zones, not leave them on the sidewalk. Also, scooters are to be ridden on the street, not on the sidewalk.

Uber removed its Jump e-bikes and e-scooters from Sacramento streets in mid-March, then announced it was essentially turning its business over to competitor Lime, which also dropped out of Sacramento in March but says it hopes to restart here soon.

A Lime spokesman said his company is in talks with the city of Sacramento about updating its permits to bring electric-motor assist bicycles and electric scooters back to the streets. That includes fees Lime must pay the city, and limitations on how many bikes and scooters can be introduced to city streets, as well as bike and scooter parking arrangements.

This story was originally published June 25, 2020 at 10:24 AM with the headline "Electric scooters are now back on Sacramento streets for rental. But bring your wipes."