City officials are raising concerns about an e-scooter share program that rolled out in southeast Queens earlier this year.
At a news conference Friday, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams called for a pause on the program, saying the city’s Department of Transportation needs to address scooter-centric safety issues.
“Our constituents have consistently raised questions and concerns about the safety hazards that are created when e-scooters are left with reckless abandon on our sidewalks and in front of homes, driveways and small businesses, senior centers, places of worship and beyond,” Adams said.
The program launched in June with three private e-scooter companies, Bird, Lime and Veo, covering a roughly 20-square-mile area of eastern Queens between Flushing in the north and John F. Kennedy International Airport to the south.
The program is designed for scooters to be parked in designated parking areas. When a user completes a ride, however, the scooter locks — making it potentially burdensome to move if left in an improper location.
In a statement provided to NY1, the DOT said the Queens program “builds on the overwhelming success we’ve seen with our operations in the East Bronx.”
“This expansion into Queens provides critical connections to major transportation and commercial hubs for roughly 600,000 residents — and we are committed to working with companies to make service improvements, including the installation of additional scooter corrals to better organize parking,” the DOT said.
A spokesperson for Lime, meanwhile, said the company “is committed to working with elected officials in eastern Queens and the communities they represent in order to fine tune the e-scooter program.”
“It’s clear from the massive ridership we’ve seen that a pause would negatively impact tens of thousands of Queens residents,” the spokesperson’s statement said, in part. “We certainly hear the speaker’s concerns, which is why we’re in the process of expanding our staff and implementing fixes to improve parking.”
A spokesperson for Veo said they have staff "in the field every day educating riders about proper parking and ensuring our vehicles are parked properly," while a spokesperson for Bird said the company is "working closely with NYCDOT on service improvements."
"Since the launch of the Queens e-scooter program, Veo has seen over 120,000 rides across neighborhoods from Flushing to Jamaica. Pausing shared scooter access in Queens would strip away an essential transportation option that tens of thousands of residents depend on for affordable, reliable trips to work, school, shopping, and more," the spokesperson for Veo's statement said, in part.
"Since the program launched in Queens this June, Bird has helped residents complete well over a quarter million rides, with 65% of these rides starting or ending within 50 feet of a mass transit stop. This proximity highlights the important role e-scooters play in Queens and in the Bronx in bridging first- and last-mile gaps, connecting residents to essential transportation and commercial hubs," the spokesperson for Bird's statement said, in part.