FAYETTEVILLE -- The city and the companies behind the electric scooters and bikes available around town want to improve the experience for users and minimize potential issues with the people who don't use the devices.
The city contracts with two companies, Spin and Veo, to provide micromobility options to residents. Micromobility refers to lightweight vehicles such as scooters or bicycles, especially electric ones, that people can rent for short-term use. Electric Off Road Moped
Spin and Veo each have 500 scooters available in the city. Spin also has an additional 100 electric bicycles available. Users can ride the vehicles using a phone app. Spin charges $1 to unlock and 29 cents per minute to ride. Veo charges $1 to unlock and 25 cents per minute to ride.
Spin last week finished deploying replacements for all of its two-wheeled scooters. The new vehicles have dual brakes, as opposed to a single brake, a hook for bags, a wireless charger for phones, turn signals, dual kickstands and a shorter deck to deter tandem riding. The company added the 100 electric bicycles to its fleet in late September.
Veo consistently updates the vehicles deployed in the city as the company develops new ones, said Christian Thompson, operations manager with the company. Starting in April, Veo began making 100 sit-down scooters available to users, which provide improved stability for users than the standup scooters, he said.
A separate app became available to residents this year called SeeClickFix that lets people report a variety of nonemergency concerns to the city, such as potential code violations such as overgrown tree limbs and cars on lawns to potholes in the street. Complaints about scooters or electric bicycles go to the relevant companies, enabling them to respond. People also can call a phone number visible on the vehicles to make complaints directly to the companies.
Both companies have crews who can respond 24 hours a day, seven days a week to reports of problems they receive.
The city wants to provide residents a more environmentally friendly transportation option than cars when traveling short distances, said Dane Eifling, the city's mobility coordinator.
"We're just trying to continue to improve the service that people are using, and for the people who aren't using the scooters, have a minimum amount of issues," he said.
The micromobility program in the city has been slowly rolling out since the City Council adopted regulations for it in summer 2019. The program started with 250 scooters from Spin in November 2019 and has grown since.
Scooters initially only were allowed primarily in and south of downtown, but the coverage area now includes most of the middle of the city. The vehicles alert riders of no-ride or slow-ride zones by either beeping or using an automated voice notification. Speed limits are automatically capped at 15 mph, although Spin's electric bicycles can reach 20 mph. The app won't let users lock and park the vehicles in certain no-parking zones.
The city holds an annual mobility survey it posts to the city website to gauge residents' sentiment on the vehicles. So far dissatisfaction has remained low, Eifling said. He said he thinks the city has avoided the pitfalls micromobility programs in large cities have experienced by keeping the program well-regulated and limiting the number of vehicles administratively.
Cities such as Atlanta and Chattanooga, Tenn., issued bans after scooter-related fatalities and issues with riders dumping the vehicles all over town became problematic.
Nationwide, micromobility companies have been cutting service in cities with no limits on the number of vehicles, said Daniel White, operations manager for Spin. Oversaturation in a market makes it so no company benefits, he said.
Fayetteville is one of those viable markets, White and Thompson both said. Each company averages 4-5 users per vehicle every day in the peak months of July to October and about two per vehicle the rest of the year, they said.
Spin chose Fayetteville as one of its first places to deploy the new scooters, White said. The electric bicycles also have shown success with 3-4 rides per vehicle every day on average during peak months, he said.
Veo once had electric bicycles but phased them out by June 2021. Eifling said those early models cost the company a lot of money to maintain. The new electric bicycles from Spin have fewer moving parts and are protected better from harsh weather, he said.
Thompson said the two companies work together with the city toward the same goals -- keeping the vehicles from becoming clutter, responding to user demands and staying mindful of any potential problems.
"We feel very happy with the Fayetteville community, and we're glad to provide a service to everyone that's a car alternative," he said.
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Print Headline: Micromobility program rolling along
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