A pilot project by a
company renting electric scooters left on Honolulu sidewalks was paused Friday after more than a week of acrimony between the rental firm Lime and city
administrators.
California-based Lime
removed its scooters from service late Friday in response to Mayor Kirk Caldwell and the city’s top lawyer contending Thursday that state law regards the scooters as mopeds that can’t be legally parked on sidewalks.
City Corporation Counsel Donna Leong said penalties of up to $1,000 or 30 days in jail could be imposed for each violation of a different state law prohibiting people from parking a vehicle on any part of a street, including sidewalks, for the purpose of selling the vehicle or any service therein and thereby creating a hazardous condition or public nuisance.
Leong and Caldwell said those penalties could be
imposed on those who park the scooters, whether it be company representatives or riders.
On Friday morning Lime put out its scooters in Waikiki, Ala Moana and
Kakaako as it had done since May 12 every morning after nighttime charging.
But late Friday the company said it was removing its green-and-white scooters from service that worked via a mobile phone app that let customers locate, unlock and pay to ride the machines for $1 plus 15 cents a minute.
“Yesterday, the city offered us a rationale behind impounding our scooters, citing our low-speed electric scooters (being classified) as mopeds,” Lime said in a statement Friday. “As a result, we have decided to temporarily suspend our service out of respect for the city, our riders, and local team members, while we review the relevant code and evaluate our next steps.”
The company formerly known as LimeBike also said, “We hope to be able to work collaboratively with city leaders to establish a sensible regulatory framework around this new shared scooter model so that we can return to serving the City &County of Honolulu. Lime aims to improve urban mobility, transportation, and cities by transforming the way people get around them and eliminating traffic congestion. We hope to do the same for Honolulu, as we have in the 60 other markets where we operate.”
Caldwell said Thursday that he was willing to have discussions with Lime representatives but only if the company showed good faith by ceasing what he regarded as an operation that was disrupting safe pedestrian use of sidewalks and creating dangerous situations with scooters being driven on sidewalks.
The mayor also said he didn’t want Honolulu to see the same problems that other cities have experienced with operators like Lime, which allow users
to leave rental scooters or bicycles anywhere they want, jamming up already crowded sidewalks, especially in Waikiki.
Residents have been
divided over whether Lime or other so-called dockless bike or scooter rental firms should have free and unregulated use of sidewalks for offering vehicles to
riders.
Rob Lichter of Kailua planned to ride a Lime scooter in Kakaako on Friday and said he understood the benefit of being able to ride one to exactly where someone wanted to go. But he also thought the orderliness of having fixed racks or designated areas for parking is a good idea.
“There should be designated areas for parking,” he said.
Lime previously contended that its parked scooters don’t constitute a public nuisance, given that they instruct riders to park “with care” on sidewalks out of the pedestrian right of way like where bike racks exist. The company also instructs riders to ride in the street or bike lanes when available but not on sidewalks.
Lime started its pilot project with 200 scooters. However, police responding to complaints about obstructed sidewalks or scooters on private property without permission rounded up and impounded 96. Lime was able to retrieve those scooters late Thursday and said over 4,000 rides were taken and far surpassed the company’s most optimistic projections.
