Miami orders Lyft to remove its electric scooters from its streets by 5 pm today

[Cal Jeffrey]

A hot potato: Scooter-sharing programs—a boon to mass transit or nuisance and safety hazard? That was the question Miami city official had to address in a pocket item Thursday evening. The verdict: Safety hazard and nuisance. The Miami City Commission voted against continuing its pilot program and ordered Lyft to remove all its scooters from Miami streets by the end of the workweek.

The city of Miami, Florida has banned electric scooters. The measure, which became effective immediately, passed the Miami City Commission in a near-unanimous 4-1 vote on Thursday. Vendors were given until midnight to deactivate and until 5 pm EST on Friday, November 19, to retrieve their scooters, or the city will impound them.

"We're shutting it down," Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla told the Miami Herald. "That's it."

Díaz de la Portilla was the swing vote on the measure and had voted to extend the scooter pilot program in the past. However, the commissioner said his mind was changed after hearing from residents. The primary argument against the electric two-wheelers was safety concerns.

"On Biscayne Boulevard, at whatever hour of the day, you see kids on these scooters," said Díaz de la Portilla, who led the effort to kill the program. "This is an accident waiting to happen."

Another tipping point is that scooters litter the sidewalks, creating obstacles for pedestrians since there are no docking stations.

A Lyft executive said she was disappointed in the Commission's decision and hopes Miami Mayor Francis Suarez will overturn the ruling.

"We're extremely disappointed in the Commission's hasty and short-sighted action to end the scooter program, taking away a safe and popular transportation option used by thousands of Miami residents daily and putting dozens of workers out of a job the week before Thanksgiving," said Lyft's Vice President of Transit, Bike, and Scooter Policy Caroline Samponaro. "We were comforted to hear remarks from Mayor Suarez earlier today in which he referred to scooters as a valuable asset to cities. We are hopeful he will stand up to the Commission on behalf of Miami residents and visitors to stop this action."

Despite the immediate ban, the program is not dead in the water. City staffers are in the process of drafting rules for a permanent scooter program. Once complete, they will send the guidelines to the City Commission for approval. If all goes as planned, Miami will start hearing bids from vendors beginning in January.

Miami is not the first city to ban motorized scooter sharing. In 2019, Nashville outlawed them after an intoxicated rider was killed in a traffic accident. At the time, Nashville was host to pilot programs for seven different scooter companies, including Lime, Lyft, Spin, Gotcha, Bird, Bolt, and Jump. Scooters in Florida have been removed many other times during storms for fear of them becoming deadly projectiles.

Image credit: Anthony Quintano (CC BY 2.0)

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/92308-miami-orders-lyft-remove-electric-scooters-streets-5.html

 

[BadThad]

Grumpy old curmudgeons ruining the fun in life!

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Grumpy old curmudgeons ruining the fun in life!

Silicon valley shiteheads dumping garbage in a nice city.

 

[Jrfeimst2]

Grumpy old curmudgeons ruining the fun in life!

True but at the same time walking is good for people and Americans are too lazy as it is lol

 

[psycros]

Grumpy old curmudgeons ruining the fun in life!

Translation: "The world is my catbox and f**k anyone who doesn't like it."

 

[captaincranky]

True but at the same time walking is good for people and Americans are too lazy as it is lol

True. And especially true of the "fairer sex", If you see a half dozen women walking down my street together, you're inclined to think it's a cattle stampede.

The whole SJW, "that shalt not body shame" paradigm is completely out of control. .

But I'm a boomer, so what the hell do I know. When I was young, the average weight of a 16 YO girl was about 100 Lbs. Now, it's more like a deuce.

 

[captaincranky]

Grumpy old curmudgeons ruining the fun in life!

I'd like to know what ever happened to the old amusement park warning, "ride at your own risk"?

Make parking stations for the scooters, with pads for signing a waiver. Just enter you thumb print on a waiver of liability, and "ride on".

With the plethora of ambulance chasers constantly advertising on TV, at the very least, the writ of waiver would at least serve as, "defense exhibit #1".

 

[Bl00dyMinded]

As a Miami resident.. Thank god! These things are on the streets cutting cars and risking themselves honestly more than anything. On top of that, the side walks are just loaded with them thrown around on the group and floated with them. So I'm honestly glad they are remove them all.

 

[Shadowboxer]

I reckon these “kids” should sell them and buy assault rifles instead. It’s important that citizens remain within the law for their own safety you see.

 

[Eflow]

True. And especially true of the "fairer sex", If you see a half dozen women walking down my street together, you're inclined to think it's a cattle stampede.

The whole SJW, "that shalt not body shame" paradigm is completely out of control. .

But I'm a boomer, so what the hell do I know. When I was young, the average weight of a 16 YO girl was about 100 Lbs. Now, it's more like a deuce.

What does the average 60 year-old weigh now vs when you were young? Maybe you shouldn't point the finger at 16 year-olds.

 

[captaincranky]

What does the average 60 year-old weigh now vs when you were young? Maybe you shouldn't point the finger at 16 year-olds.

Well, I managed to stay at about 165 @5' 9" until I retired. I'm probably about a deuce now. But, at least I put off porking out until my mid to late 60's. So maybe you shouldn't tell me what I'm allowed to have an opinion about..

 

[Eflow]

Well, I managed to stay at about 165 @5' 9" until I retired. I'm probably about a deuce now. But, at least I put off porking out until my mid to late 60's. So maybe you shouldn't tell me what I'm allowed to have an opinion about..

The point is that is that every demographic is fatter than they were 40 years ago, but I suppose you have the right to single out adolescent girls (as weird and ignorant as your opinion may be)

 

[captaincranky]

The point is that is that every demographic is fatter than they were 40 years ago, but I suppose you have the right to single out adolescent girls (as weird and ignorant as your opinion may be)

Well, my opinion, regardless of how "politically incorrect" you may believe it to be, points to a greater threat to the US, which you're not taking into consideration, and that is decadence.

It might amaze you to find this out, but you can still find slender young women in other countries..Now here, OTOH, we stuff them full of junk food, and encourage them to do nothing, other than run their yaps on a cellphone, bitching about how they've been :"sexually harassed". FWIW, I've been invited to bed by a few cows in my day, and turned them all down,..

Mick Jagger famously wrote, "you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you'll get what you need".

I'd rather do without.

 

[p51d007]

From what I've seen, MOST of these are as bad or worse than people on skateboards. Sometimes it's like they are in a virtual game of frogger they way they dart in and out of traffic, whizzing by on sidewalks etc.

 

[trieste1s]

Whether a public cycling or e-scootering program is safe, really depends on the people living there. If a program has to be culled, it means there are too many ill-breds in that city roaming the streets on one of those.

 

[captaincranky]

From what I've seen, MOST of these are as bad or worse than people on skateboards. Sometimes it's like they are in a virtual game of frogger they way they dart in and out of traffic, whizzing by on sidewalks etc.

I take it you haven't "been to the big city recently"? Here we have traveling hordes of dirt bikes and ATVs surrounding people on the streets.

Hell, I've been driving my motorcycle on a milk runn and had some jacka** on an ATV pull up beside me doing a wheelie. (And I mumble to myself, I'm impressed ******, now get the f**k out of my face).

 

[cliffordcooley]

Miami is not the first city to ban motorized scooter sharing. In 2019, Nashville outlawed them after an intoxicated rider was killed in a traffic accident.

Promoting a drinking problem is what I get out of this. Instead of you deserve what you get. We want to protect you, while you act a fool of yourself. Meantime everyone else has to pay for your stupidity.

 

[captaincranky]

Promoting a drinking problem is what I get out of this. Instead of you deserve what you get. We want to protect you, while you act a fool of yourself. Meantime everyone else has to pay for your stupidity.

Apparently, the TSA (??) is going to try and head off drunk driving "at the pass", so to speak, by implementing safety measures into all new automobiles, so that they can't be started by an intoxicated person. How much this will add to the already outrageous price of a new car is anybody's guess.

Of course that will have no effect on drunken scooter pilots.

 

[Underdog]

Well, my opinion, regardless of how "politically incorrect" you may believe it to be, points to a greater threat to the US, which you're not taking into consideration, and that is decadence.

It might amaze you to find this out, but you can still find slender young women in other countries..Now here, OTOH, we stuff them full of junk food, and encourage them to do nothing, other than run their yaps on a cellphone, bitching about how they've been :"sexually harassed". FWIW, I've been invited to bed by a few cows in my day, and turned them all down,..

Mick Jagger famously wrote, "you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you'll get what you need".

I'd rather do without.

I would like to change your word "decadence" to "obesity". Decadence is a completely different social sickness fed by capitalistic consumerism. Obesity on the other hand is a serious health risk that is at the root of a long list of potentially terminal threats. Eating too much and getting minimal exercise is a matter of choice. When I used to live in California if someone was seen actually walking down the street the cops would stop them to verify they weren't vagrants, and passing neighbours that recognised you would pull over and offer a lift, thinking you had broken down. Thank f**** I got out when I did. I had a 30" waist when I left high school and today I've bloated out to 32" at age 73. Due to hard work and not getting into a car to post a letter 100 yards away.

 

[TheBigT42]

As a Miami resident.. Thank god! These things are on the streets cutting cars and risking themselves honestly more than anything. On top of that, the side walks are just loaded with them thrown around on the group and floated with them. So I'm honestly glad they are remove them all.

Same thing is happening in Birmingham AL (Not lyft but some other scooter company)