Two of them are parked in my building’s secured garage downtown. Make them dockless and then folks abuse it by essentially locking them up for personal use. How do folks get away with that?
NC State has their own contracts with micromobiity providers (in fact, scooters remained there, even when Raleigh had mostly run them out of the city.). So the scooters you see downtown and other areas are not allowed to operate at NC State (I was reminded of this the difficult way when my scooter cut off just past the hotel on Hillsborough). I believe that’s why the boundary looks so odd in the map you posted. Otherwise, the perimeter should be the same around the city; they all cut off a certain distance from downtown.
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Okay here’s a better image.
I understand why the city’s dockless scooters are banned from NCSU campus, but the entire SW quadrant of the city is a no-go zone. So you cant take a scooter down Gorman St to Lake Johnson but you can take one to the CCU ampitheater, considerably further away from downtown.
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Thanks! I’ll ask transportation staff about the gap here. If possible, can you email this map to me? jonathan.melton@raleighnc.gov
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Call me whatever you want to call me, but I predict this sort of micro transit would largely become entertainment/amusement if implemented. In the same way that the scooters are largely an amusement downtown, I can’t imagine it solving too many urban transit issues. Sure there will be people using it as planned, but I’ll bet my bottom dollar that they won’t represent the majority of users.
if you spent any amount of time downtown and paid attention you would know scooters are far from an amusement. they get a lotttt of commuter use
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Um, I LIVE downtown and walk miles and miles and miles among all of the roads in the core. I largely see them being used for amusement. I didn’t say that they are only being used for amusement, but I stand by my comment based on what I see all of the time.
um thanks, i also live and hang out downtown! just because people are “amused” to be on a scooter doesn’t mean they are not also using them frequently to get around.
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I stand by my statement.
You are welcome to view it as you wish.
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Poor take on the scooters. They’re all over downtown and East Raleigh from people using them to get from point to point. I’d love to see more of them deployed. The new painted parking zones in Glenwood south are nice additions too. Will help people know where to pick up and leave them and keeps them more organized.
I agree with the discussion on microtransit, seems like a number of pluses and deltas to debate. But scooters/biking/walking? Nah there shouldn’t be any debate there. City should keep doing everything it can to promote safe, green transit, in any form. Love to see the positive steps taken here recently, like the striping of McDowell/Dawson that no one has mentioned yet. The city is iterating yet again and it’s great. Lots of new green paint which is more low-cost advertising of our bike system than anything. And the painted curb extensions that will likely be concrete in the next iteration. I love to see simple stuff like this. Melton mentioned the striping project and how the city was aiming to do more with less. I think they nailed it. Gets the discussion going about extending the curbs for pedestrian safety and traffic calming (a la Chicago). Can’t wait to see the next version eventually.
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I’ve used scooters plenty of times to meet up with friends on the other side of town.
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I too frequently use scooters to get to the other side of town when I don’t want to drive but it’s too far to walk. They do also happen to be very fun, so it makes sense I would look “amused” while riding them 
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Living downtown, the scooters are essential. When I take my car to get inspected or for an oil change, when I want to go to a bar in the warehouse district or glenwood south, when I need to go to my eye dr or dentist and don’t want to deal with parking - the scooters are 10000% used for practical commuting/functional trips - the fact that they’re fun is just a bonus
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At this point in the downtown area there is significantly more scooters than bike riders. It’s at least 3 to 1, and way more office workers wearing work attire who don’t want to get sweaty or mess up their pants.
Lots of people also seem to have purchased their own instead of renting I’ve noticed too.
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Personally, I use the scooters to get home (Mordecai neighborhood) if I miss a bus transfer. GoRaleigh 1 outbound switches from 15min to hourly starting at 7:15p (which is so, so stupid). If I wanna get home without waiting another 45-50min, the scooters are clutch (and keep me from getting an Uber).
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According to google scooters are more dangerous than bikes or walking. Thus my reasoning for not trying to learn as I am not very balanced. Google does go on to say that learning to ride is fairly easy. Nah. I still say no to the scooter. But I do think they have their place and can see the value they add to DT.
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It is my complete lack of balance, sober, that makes me avoid scooters. I can see their value, but not a big fan of them zooming by me on the sidewalks. They need a propulsion noise - like the cars from The Jetsons.
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Between watching a guy smash his face to pieces on one, tripping over them strewn all over sidewalks and lawns, and morons sideswiping me at full speed when I’m walking on the sidewalk, they’re emphatically not my favorite mode of transportation in terms of the city feeling like a pleasant place to be.
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absolutely valid concerns and i fear those issues will get worse with the rising downtown population, until the city figures out a decent education/enforcement plan
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Or maybe a cow bell.
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