Scooters are back on the streets of Nashville after controversy earlier in the year when Bird dropped scooters in town without giving any notice.
On Friday, Lime launched their scooter program in Nashville after electronic scooter companies worked with Metro Council and city officials to come up with regulations that will allow the electric scooters to operate in the city.
"I think we wanted to make it work, try to bring [scooters] into Nashville, but in a way we wanted to, to make sure that they're used safe, parked properly," Metro Council member Jeremy Elrod said. "I'm encouraged, and I'm cautiously optimistic. There will be hiccups, and we'll have to figure those out as we go."
This comes after a cease and desist was delivered to Bird by the city when the problems started to mount up when they arrived in town. People reported numerous issues with the scooters, but the main ones seemed to be people driving them on sidewalks and parking their scooters in the wrong places.
Officials with Lime said they have worked out deals with the city to do their best to ensure something like that won't happen with their scooters.
"When we are deploying them each morning, we have a trained team of operations specialists who are going to deploy them in a safe way, not obstructing any traffic," Lilli Krauss, operations manager for Lime in Nashville, said. "We're really happy to have been able to partner with the city to really create some framework that works for us and them and the city of Nashville to keep everyone safe."
Lime is stressing certain rules, advertising them both when you download their app, as well as on their scooters, such as: you need to be at least 18 years old to ride the scooter, you must ride them on the street or in bike lanes (not on sidewalks), and you must wear a helmet when riding the scooters.
If used properly, many think they can be an effective form of transportation in a booming city.
"If you want to walk or take this as an alternative to a ride share or your personal car, it's going to provide another alternative, another option for folks," Elrod said. "They're going to be able to take advantage of them to get around."
Bird has scheduled to launch their scooters back onto the streets in Nashville on Saturday with a helmet giveaway and safety demo at Von Elrods. Bird plans to distribute hundreds of free helmets to Nashville bird riders.
Von Elrods said they have cooked up something special for Bird riders, and they invite all prospective bird riders to visit on the day of Bird's launch back into Music City.
