Santa Monica tries to catch up with e-scooters

**Following the airing of this program, the Santa Monica City Council approved a pilot program, due to begin Sept. 17, that caps the number of scooters allowed in the city. It allows two competing electric scooter companies and two electric bike companies to operate in the city, with a “dynamic” cap on the number of scooters and bikes each company is allowed to deploy. The program also imposes higher permitting fees, requires vendors to increase the availability of helmets for riders at the time of use and mandates more stringent rules that, if broken, would result in the rental company losing its permit to operate in the city.**

Ever since Bird scooters took flight in Santa Monica in the fall of 2017, they have ruffled feathers, won devoted customers and earned huge amounts of VC investment.

The latest version Lime-S dockless electric scooter, designed in collaboration with Segway, has hit the roads in Santa Monica. Photo by Frances Anderton.