ORLANDO, Fla. — As demand for e-bikes, e-scooters and other micromobility vehicles continues to increase, cities across the country are increasingly having to deal with issues involving parking, riding and sharing the roads.
According to the National Association of City Transportation Officials, people across the country took more than 133 million trips on shared e-bikes and e-scooters in 2023, which was up 17% from the previous year.
The growth is evident in the city of Orlando, too. That is why city leaders are working to come up with some solutions for parking, riding and sharing the roads with micromobility vehicles.
In downtown Orlando, it is easy to spot rental e-bikes and e-scooters parked all over the place, sometimes even laying across the sidewalk. As more people ride and get their own e-bikes and e-scooters, city leaders want more options for riders to keep everyone safe.
“Getting in and out of downtown, to and from work,” said Rick Buckholtz, the operations manager at VEO.
Lake Eola is a popular spot to rent e-scooters from the company VEO, one of three companies that has partnered with the city of Orlando, and operations manager Rick Burkholtz said more and more people are using micromobility devices as a primary vehicle.
“In a month, maybe tens of thousands of rides and a lot of them are repeat customers, because it is their mode of transportation daily,” Buckholtz said.
It’s an option that many visitors and locals often use to run errands, get to work and for fun. But once the ride is over, the question becomes: Where does the e-bike or e-scooter go? Sometimes, it ends up in the middle of the sidewalk, even when there’s a designated parking spot just across the street.
“We know that we need to make sure that there is convenient and safe and secure bike parking for people near their destination,” said Jacques Coulon, the transportation planning division manager at the city of Orlando.
A spokesperson for Lime said education and infrastructure are key to safely integrating micromobility devices into everyday life. The company would like to see more clearly visible corrals for riders.
“Most people want to follow the rules, and we want to make it easy for people to know where they should park, where they shouldn’t park,” Coulon said.
The city of Orlando is in the final stages of its report that will show where people want to ride, where they want to park and how the city can incorporate those plans with the big streetscape projects that are already in the works.
“We are looking at how to accommodate everybody,” Coulon said.
For rentals, most riders are required to take a picture of where they leave the device, and can face warnings or suspensions for improper parking. But where the city has less control is with personal e-bikes and e-scooters.
“We don’t have a role as heavy-handed to regulate how they operate, but we want to make sure they are operating and parking in a way that is safe,” Coulon said.
That’s why before the e-bike and e-scooter craze completely takes over, city officials say it’s time to get everyone on the same path. The city of Orlando is finalizing its plans for micromobility parking and city leaders say they hope to release them to the public in May or June, and then start implementing changes as soon as they can.