THOMASVILLE, Ga. (WTXL) — Thomasville City Council members say safety is their number one concern when it comes to considering whether people can use scooters inside the Rose City.
Electric Scooter rental companyBirdreached out to Council members with a request to operate within city limits. But, with a population of just under 20,000 and bumpy brick roads, city officials say Thomasville is too small and too dangerous for scooters.
"The Safety part of it is what concerns me," says Major Shane Harris with the Thomasville City Police Department. "The bricks downtown, I don't think they're conducive to riding a scooter on which would probably make people ride the scooters on the sidewalk which is not very safe at all."
Council members plan to collect more data from nearby cities before possibly banning the scooters altogether. In discussion, they mentioned Tallahassee's scooter program, which first began in July of 2019.
"We work with the Tallahassee Police Department to make sure that, you know, to see if there are any accidents or injuries from them," said Julie Christesen, principal planner with Tallahassee and Leon County's planning department. "So we get an update from them just to check on things and found that we haven't really had any serious accidents on the shared scooters."
Bird was one of three Scooter companies in Tallahassee that helped the city reach nearly 300,000 rides to date.
Cities that allow the shareable scooters also receive a portion of each fee paid per ride. Christensen says Tallahassee bills biannually and has not yet sent out their first invoice.
