The City of Portland has silently launched a new fleet of electric scooters. As far as I can tell, the new scooters hit the streets this week. A spokesperson I contacted via text yesterday after seeing the scooters in the wild for the first time responded with only, “Soft launch. Big news coming. In a couple weeks. 😃 [smiling face emoji].”
The scooters are Biketown-branded and are owned by Lyft, the same company that holds Portland’s bike share contract. Readers have reported Biketown stations full of scooters in northwest and the Lloyd. The tight marketing integration (you can also find the scooters in the same Biketown app where you rent bikes) makes sense and will likely help these new scooters succeed.
PBOT first launched an e-scooter rental program in July 2018. Despite being a mode many people love to hate, e-scooters have done very well here. In 2022 PBOT decided it was time to drop the “pilot” and make scooters a permanent program. Since that time they’ve issued requests for proposals for a company (or companies) to operate the program and expected to have the new contract in place last year.
We’ve had several different scooter companies enter and exit our market. Bird was here for a while. So was Spin, but both of those companies no longer offer e-scooters in Portland. That leaves just Lime — and now Lyft/Biketown — as the only scooters on our streets. According to the city’s micromobility dashboard, there are currently about 1,340 e-scooters for rent in Portland (compared to about 1,000 e-bikes).
A page on the Biketown website shares a bit more about the scooters:
- the first ride is limited to 10 mph maximum, then they top out at 15 mph (we should do that for cars!);
- riders must be 18 or over;
- parking is free at Biketown stations and there’s a $1 fee if parked elsewhere;
- the scooters have integrated turn signals;
- riding is prohibited inside Portland parks, high school campuses, and TriMet MAX platforms.
Pricing-wise, annual Biketown members can unlock scooters for free and rides are $0.27 per minute. Non-member rates are $1 to unlock and $0.37 per minute. The “Community Pass” offers eligible Portlanders a monthly fee of $5 for free unlocks and rides for $0.07 per minute.
The scooter is Lyft’s “next-gen” model that came out in February 2023. It’s got lots of tech to track routes and detect when riders are on sidewalks. The scooters also have a phone mount, dual brake leavers, and suspension.
PBOT spokesperson Dylan Rivera says Lime and Lyft are slowly ramping up service and, “In the coming weeks the two companies should have more than 3,000 scooters combined in Portland.”
Stay tuned for the official launch and let us know if you’ve ridden one yet and what your experience has been.
