E-Scooters: A Quiet Transport – Maybe too Quiet
By: Paige Miller
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Spin scooters have been rolling on Athens bricks for nearly two weeks and community members are slowly warming up to the new mode of transportation. The scooters provide service to cities like Columbus, Cleveland and Dayton, and now hope to make their mark on Athens.
Morgan Windsor, an Ohio University student, was able to ride a scooter on his morning commute to work.
“I rode it from Courtyard to the bottom of Baker and it only ended up being 2 dollars,” he said.
One manager at Spin said he was excited to provide the a low-cost method of transportation to the city.
“I think of scooters, and micro-mobility as filling in the gaps between existing networks,” said Dan Winston, Regional General Manager of the Mid-Atlantic for Spin. “We believe that programs like this need to be regulated because it’s transportation, and it’s something people need to be able to rely on.”
Some pedestrians though would like to see improvements. Even though the scooters come equipped with a bell, some riders may not be courteous enough to use them.
“The problem with these scooters is that they are so silent that you could just be walking and all of the sudden a scooter just zooms past you and you nearly get hit,” said Ben Klaus, an Ohio University student.
One way Spin hopes to mitigate this issue is by creating marketing that addresses every part of the riding process.
In-app messages remind users how to be safely share the road before hopping on. When a customer is done riding, parking in certain areas earns riders a discount on their next purchase.
“Scooters should not be impeding anyone from getting around,”Winston said. “Our service is only going to be useful to everyone when it is not disruptive.”