Brace Yourself! Dockless Scooters, Bikes to Debut in Boise
The roll out of Lime electric scooters in Meridian proved to be a complete nightmare. Can Boise do it better?
According to KTVB, we're weeks away from seeing both the Lime scooters join scooters and e-bikes from a similar company called Bird pop up in the City of Trees. While they won't be put into use until mid-October, Boise City Council has been preparing for a successful launch since the end of August.
The Idaho Press explains that Boise passed an ordinance on August 21 that will require operators like Lime and Bird to pay a $100 fee per bike or scooter that they have in the market, a $5000 yearly operator fee and a $20 security deposit per device.
Foreshadowing the problems Meridian dealt with, Boise City Council has flat out said that the companies will be fined $100 per device that needs to be moved to a correct location. If the city has to keep them in their storage facilities more than a month, there's an additional $5 fine per day past 30 days. If the money an operator has saved up with the city dips below $5000, they'll have to pay more into it...hopefully preventing operators from letting things get as out of control as they did in Meridian.
A city spokesman told KTVB, that the apps associate with the rentals should make it pretty clear where you cannot park on of the devices.
Here's hoping this goes better in Boise!