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While other cities ban them, Newport has become a risk
NEWPORT – Riding e-scooters may seem liberating to those who walk and environmentally friendly to those who drive carbon-emitting cars, but in Newport many people see them as nothing but a nuisance.
Karine Brooks of Newport said she hates them.
“I live up in Quail Street. They just drop them on the ground and walk away,” Brooks said.
Brooks said it’s a safety issue in her neighborhood, explaining cars are forced to drive in the center of the road to avoid them potentially hitting each other.
“Kids are doing it for a joy ride. There is nothing better for them to do,” she said.
Tim Skubitz, owner of Newport McDonald’s, was injured trying to remove an e-scooter from his restaurant’s outdoor patio.
He said initially he welcomed them as a novelty, but when he was injured on July 1, 2021, he had second thoughts.
“There were three to four left unattended in the outside patio.
When we started to roll them out of the way, an audible beeping was heard then the front wheel locked up,” he said.
That’s when his Achilles tendon got nicked and he had to receive stitches.
“They are strewn about in the parking lot and even the drive thru,” Skubitz said. “They are affecting my business.”
Skubitz geofenced his property, a means to de-activate e-scooters before entering the area, but he said he still finds them.
E-Scooter share programs were introduced in the United States in Santa Monica, California, in September 2017. They were present in more than 80 cities and 26 states throughout the country, according to an August 2020 study published by The National Institute of Health.
In 2018, users took 38.5 million trips on shared e-scooters in the United States. Two of the largest e-scooter companies, Bird and Lime, were recently valued at over $2 billion each.
Potential users download a mobile phone application that allows them to view the locations of available e-scooters in real time and to begin, end, and pay for their rides. Users are typically charged a flat fee for the rental plus an additional fee for each minute the e-scooter is used.
Users leave their e-scooters at their final destinations where the e-scooters then become available to other users. Within municipal share programs, e-scooters typically have a range between 15 and 20 miles, and speeds are usually capped at 15 mph.
E-Scooters have been warmly welcomed by some municipalities and shunned by others as state and local governments have struggled to enact appropriate regulations to manage the rapid expansion of e-scooter share programs.
The City of Spokane has been in a contract with Lime for scooters for the past several years. That contract expired, so the city is now in the process of negotiating a new one.
In traffic congested Spokane, e-scooters benefit the city because they are an easy mode of transportation that reduces reliance on cars, said Erin Hut, Spokane’s Director of Communications.
Spokane got $190,000 a year before contract ended.
Although a benefit, e-scooters do come with challenges.
“We do struggle with riders using them on sidewalks (they are supposed to be used in streets) and not being mindful of where they park them after use,” she said. “Leaving them in the middle of sidewalks poses challenges for people with disabilities.”
Oldtown City Clerk Alicia Ehrmantrout said their city absolutely won’t have them within city limits geofencing their city against encroachments of scooters.
“We absolutely won’t allow them here. They are a nuisance, clog up sidewalks, and is a liability issue we cannot accept,” she said.
Priest River has also banned e-scooters.
“The terrain in Priest River is much hillier than the other cities making their effectiveness questionable, and it was also brought forward that they seem to be scattered all over Newport,” Mayor Jeff Connolly said. “I had also witnessed some kids ramming them into to each other in the Safeway parking lot.”
“The Lime scooters can be a pain,” Newport School Superintendent David Smith said.
“Last year we contacted the company and had them make it so the scooters would not work on the high school campus because they were everywhere,” he said. “We do not see a lot of students riding them on campus but they are a problem as people do leave them in our campus area and sidewalks and we have to move them.”
Jasmine Jackson, 21, has been riding Lime scooters several times and said she sees nothing wrong with them.
“It is a mobile form of transportation. Students need to get to school and they can get to their jobs when they don’t have cars yet,” she said.
Jackson said riders locate the scooters using the Lime app on their phones, then they scan the scooter’s QR code to start them, each scooter costing eight cents a minute.
“It is another form for kids to get around without walking or relying on their parents because they have to work,” she said. “It’s also an incentive to get them outside rather than playing video games.”
Lime e-scooters first appeared in Newport under an agreement with the local chamber and previous mayor.
Mayor Keith Campbell said the city receives no recompense from Lime for allowing their scooters in Newport except for a small sales tax.
The city council met on Monday demanding a contract with Lime or they would consider removing the scooters from Newport.
“We should have a contract. If not, they don’t come back,” Councilman Mark Zorica said.
E-scooters are banned from many city properties including the Rodeo grounds. City Administrator Abby Gribi mentioned a municipal code that bars scooters, bikes, and roller skates from Washington Avenue that wasn’t enforced.
“I haven’t seen improvements in blocking sidewalks,” she said.
Campbell said safety is his primary concern.
“If it becomes a cost issue, that (safety) outweighs any benefit,” he said.
He admits that most e-scooter riders go against traffic and do not follow traffic regulations.
The city does not permit them in city parks.
Councilman Ken Smith said he is also concerned about liability if a rider gets injured or dies from an e-scooter accident.
“A 14-year-old girl was zipping past near Hwy 20 without paying attention,” he said.
“This is a safety issue. We approach it one step at a time, who’s got the liability?” Smith said.
Smith said the city council is looking into the use of e-scooters and said they have the power to ban them if necessary.
“The only thing they are good for here are joy rides,” he said.
