E-scooters arrived in Tampa last May, and now St. Pete is following suit.
Yesterday, city council passed a “micromobility ordinance” that will allow for the popular e-scooters to be used in most parts of St. Pete. The city will launch a pilot program in the winter or spring of next year, according to the Tampa Bay Business Journal.
The ordinance did lay some ground rules, as the council wanted to make sure that safety was a top priority. “I don’t want the Wild Wild West, and I don’t want to limit scooters to the degree where it just doesn’t make sense to use them,” council member Ed Montanari told the Tampa Bay Times.
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The e-scooters will have geofences to prevent riders from entering prohibited areas, and when parking the scooter riders will have to make sure they're not blocking building entrances or pedestrian walkways, with the city providing designated corrals for the scooters (one for every block downtown, with as many as 180 areas around the city).
The scooters will also have a 10 p.m. curfew, so no getting drunk at first Friday then riding the scooter home at midnight. There will also be punishments for breaking these rules, such as small fines and potential bans from using the apps that regulate the e-scooters.
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This article appears in Oct 17-24, 2019.