Financial difficulties, not safety issues, caused the electric scooter company co-founded by the legendary Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt to abruptly leave Mobile last week.
But city officials hope another company will enter the market, and again bring the rental e-scooters, or even electric bicycles, to downtown Mobile.
“Its unfortunate Bolt was unable to sustain its operations in Mobile, but we have seen there is definitely an interest in these kinds of mobility services among Mobilians and visitors to our city,” Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson said in a statement. “Several companies offer similar services, and I believe we are in a good position to engage with a new provider about bringing something to Mobile that works for riders, pedestrians and motorists in our downtown.”
Safety
Police recorded few problems with the e-scooters since they became available for rental in late 2019 around downtown Mobile.
Mobile police cited four incidences, and no major injuries from the scooters that have been scrutinized nationwide as safety hazards:
- Three juveniles were involved in one incident in which a male victim was struck by a scooter while walking on a sidewalk.
- A person lost control of a scooter and hit a vehicle on Dauphin Street.
- A person fell off a scooter and sustained facial injuries.
- Young adults were spotted riding scooters inside the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center.
Carol Hunter, spokesperson with the Downtown Mobile Alliance, and a frequent user of the scooters, said she believes there were far more incidents than what was reported by the police.
“The problem is they were ridden on sidewalks, and I know of two (separate) incidences where servers were taking food to diners on sidewalks and were hit by scooters,” she said. “There were injuries because of scooters being ridden on sidewalks.”
The scooters were prohibited from being operated on sidewalks and were only allowed to be used on the streets through downtown Mobile.
Hunter said the other concerns about the scooters included: There were a lot of underage users riding them, and they were scattered “all over the sidewalks.”
“Our team was constantly having to clear a path so people could walk with strollers and so what wheelchairs could get through,” Hunter said.
Gotcha-branded scooters arrived in Mobile shortly after Christmas 2019. Stimpson, via Twitter on Christmas Day that year, posted a picture of one of the scooters next to a Christmas tree, “We must have been very good this year,” the mayor tweeted. “Santa’s sending electric scooters to Downtown Mobile!”
Almost immediately upon their arrival, the police expressed concerns about how to enforce them. A spokesperson with the department, in early 2020, said the agency was studying what other police departments in the country do when it comes to enforcement.
“This was nothing that the Police Department asked for,” said Sgt. Laderrick Dubose, in a January 2020 AL.com story.
“I don’t know how they can be enforced, honestly,” Hunter said. “It was a difficult thing to police. We’d also see two people on a scooter at once. That’s totally not allowed. It’s frighteningly dangerous.”
Hunter said the scooters were popular but were not often used for their intended purpose as a micro mobility tool for people who live and work downtown and for people who visit Mobile.
Also, almost no one – except, admittedly, Hunter herself – wore a protective helmet while operating a scooter.
“(The companies) recommend it, and I think I was the only one,” she said.
Faltering finances
Gotcha was purchased in 2021, by Bolt Mobility, which replaced the teal-colored scooters with yellow and black-colored Bolt scooters. The Gotcha app, which allowed users to pay for and unlock the scooters, was still used by users after the company takeover occurred.
Bolt, in a statement posted on the company’s website, said it ran into financial troubles on June 30, after equity investors failed “to deliver on committed investment.” The company then had to scale back operations.
The scooters in Mobile were removed last week, Stimpson spokesman Jason Johnson said. He said the company collected the majority of the scooters, with a few exceptions where MPD impounded some of them.
In other cities where Bolt Mobility operated, the scooters were left behind.
In Richmond, California, Mayor Tom Butt wrote last month that Bolt did not provide any notice about their business struggles and did not remove their capital equipment from city property. “The city is coming up with a plan to remove all the abandoned equipment,” the mayor wrote.
A transportation official in Chittenden County, Vermont, said the company “vanished” and left behind the scooters, and unanswered phone calls and emails.
In Mobile, when Gotcha first began operating, company employees were supposed to be in Mobile and were assigned to locating the scooters to areas where they could be spotted easily and used. The employees were also charged with cleaning up areas where scooters were scattered.
“They did have staff in Mobile,” Hunter said. “They would often do a very good job of collecting the scooters that needed to be charged up whenever the batteries died. They did a good job of repositioning them and at 7 am, if you walked downtown, you would see scooters neatly lined up. But it was the user of the scooters who would leave them all over the place.”
She added, “I don’t know that Gotcha had the personnel to constantly patrol the streets to make sure they were left in appropriate places.”
Will scooters return?
Mobile was unique among Alabama cities in bringing the scooters to the city. Other Alabama cities, about three years ago, were pushing away from the service after Gov. Kay Ivey signed legislation that allowed the devices to be defined as “street-legal” and defined as a “micromobility device system.”
Huntsville, in September 2019, voted down a proposed ordinance to allow for them on public right-of-way.
Other cities were hesitant to bring them in.
Chicago-based Veo has electric scooters and bikes in Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, and Pensacola.
In Birmingham, the company is touting its relationship with city officials to meet scooter demand during the World Games. Veo, according to its website, deployed around 800 stand-up scooters and e-bikes over 40 parking hubs and game areas, accommodations, and tourism hot spots.
Over the course of the 10-day event, Veo provided over 17,000 rides to athletes, spectators, event staff and Birmingham residents.
In Mobile, the city signed a non-exclusive agreement in the spring of 2019 with Gotcha. It coincided at the city with the city’s termination of an exclusive agreement with San Francisco-based Lime after the company deployed lime-green bikes throughout Mobile during a six-month run that ended after that company faced financial difficulties.
Johnson, the city spokesperson, said there was no contract between the city and Bolt Mobility. He said that Bolt had a franchise agreement to use the city’s right-of-way, but the city did not get a franchise fee.
The non-exclusive agreement did not hold the city liable in the event of accidents occurring on the scooters.
The city did not utilize taxpayer money to support the programs, but it is unclear how much staff time or policing was used to monitor them. The city has not conducted a report on either Gotcha or Bolt’s operations in Mobile.
“There were no incentives for Bolt or a fee charged to lease scooters,” Johnson said. “This didn’t cost the city anything.”
Johnson said the mayor’s office “is open to exploring agreements” with other e-scooter and e-bike providers.
Hunter said any future arrangement should include provisions where the technology disables scooters whenever they are used on a sidewalk, similar to how Gotcha and Bolt were able to slow down the devices during events that drew large crowds to downtown Mobile like Mardi Gras.
“They have the ability to control the speeds of the scooters and they can deactivate them whenever crossing a geofence and, if they can work on that calibration (and prevent them from running on sidewalks), that would be great,” she said. “If they can work out these problems, it would be great to see them again.”
She added, “I think they are great additional means of moving around downtown. More options are always good.”