Wednesday, July 17, 2024
- In the spring of 2021, Lime scooters and bikes were released in Washington, D.C.?
- D.C. was the first city to receive Lime scooters.?
- Spin launched its dockless e-bike system in 2017.?
- Scooters and e-bikes have had little regulation.?
- This year, the District Council finally required mopeds (including scooters and, in some cases, e-bikes) to have license plates and their operators to have driving permits.?
With the help of the Georgetown Business Improvement District, the District Department of Transportation has installed corrals on 31st and 28th Streets at M Street, among others. The bikes and scooters are supposed to be parked in the corrals or at bike racks. But the e-bike and scooter companies are ignoring the newly constructed corrals — evidenced by the photo of the corral at 31st and M Streets and the photo that follows of the bikes and scooters on the sidewalk at the corner and in the expanded sidewalk area.?
Unfortunately, DDOT has lost control of the scooter and e-bike boom, which has overwhelmed Georgetown. The vehicles litter the sidewalks and bridges and block handicapped ramps throughout the neighborhood. They sometimes completely block sidewalk access.?DDOT has all but conceded the sidewalk space to the scooter and e-bike companies.?
The expanded sidewalks have ended up becoming storage areas for scooters and e-bikes. Frequently, there appear to be 10 times as many scooters as pedestrians in a given stretch of the expanded sidewalks.
It would be nice to see the Metropolitan Police Department spend a Saturday night in Georgetown enforcing the new rules regarding license plates. Unfortunately, the department does not seem to be actively enforcing them, even when unlicensed mopeds and scooters are sitting next to occupied MPD vehicles.?
In addition to ruining the historic streetscape of Georgetown — Washington’s oldest neighborhood and a top visitor destination — the never-ending proliferation of e-bikes and scooters has made the simple act of walking on our sidewalks unsafe.??
Everyone has the right to walk on the sidewalk without the clutter of scooters and e-bikes. It is time for the Council, the mayor, DDOT and MPD to get serious about this situation, and for the citizens of Georgetown to take back our sidewalks and streets.