Will the Scooters Come Back to East Lansing?

The City of East Lansing decided that app-controlled electric scooters could return to town by March 15, if the companies agreed to their terms. But the lightweight vehicles have been notably absent from East Lansing’s sidewalks and roadways this spring.

They haven’t been banned, but new City law requires an application and approval process for scooter conpanies that's quite different from last year when first Bird and then Lime “dropped” scooters around town.

East Lansing City Council recently passed ordinances setting rules for ridership and outlining licensing agreements for the companies who run the pay-per-ride vehicles, as has the City of Lansing.

In East Lansing, the new rules include a 10 m.p.h. speed limit on sidewalks, a $2,500-per-year licensing fee charged to each company, and a 10-cents-per-ride fee for all trips that originate within the City of East Lansing, to be paid monthly to the City by each scooter company.

Additionally, the City now requires companies to report their user data to the City’s government, including trip volumes, distances, routes, and the starting and stopping points for each trip, and to educate scooter users “about the rights of pedestrians including those with disabilities to travel unimpeded by electric skateboards whether in use or parked” as well as about “permissible parking locations, speed limits, safety equipment requirements and general courtesy.”

Across Grand River Avenue, MSU’s Board of Trustees has updated the campus ordinance regarding bicycles to include “electric mobility devices,” a category designed to address the stand-to-ride motorized scooters. The update will allow the electric vehicles to operate on bike lanes and roadways throughout campus.

The MSU policy update also establishes designated parking areas for scooters on campus. This is a significant change from 2018 when scooters on campus were subjected to the rules for moped use and were impounded when left on campus sidewalks.

According to East Lansing Mayor Mark Meadows, an application from new-to-town scooter company Spin has received conditional approval and another from Gotcha has been received but is not yet been approved.

Meadows said that Lime has indicated that it is waiting for more information from MSU, and that the City hasn’t heard from the Bird company yet.

Neither Bird nor Lime, the two companies that operated the app-controlled scooters in East Lansing last year, responded to our requests for information or comment.