CAMBRIDGE, MASS. (WHDH) - The wheels are in motion to get electric scooters back on the streets of Cambridge.
At a city garage, dozens of bikes are being held, taken off the streets and locked up after they showed up unannounced over the summer.
Sixty-nine electric scooters were confiscated off the streets of Cambridge after the LA-Based Bird company brought them to Cambridge and Somerville in July to start a new scooter sharing service.
Both cities fired off a cease-and-desist letter telling the company to keep the scooters away.
“It was a surprise launch and kind of uncool,” said Cambridge Vice Mayor Jan Devereux.
But on Wednesday, Cambridge officials invited the representatives from scooter companies Bird and Lime to a hearing to discuss a pilot program for the scooters, which are already being used in several other cities.
To use the battery-powered scooters have to download an app, pay for it with a credit card, pick it up where you can find one, and drop it off anywhere.
But city officials say they can’t allow the scooters on their streets until local and state scooter regulations are updated.
The scooter company representatives tried to address one concern: parking.
“If you want to end your reservation on the scooter, you need to take a photo of it,” said Scott Kubly of Lime. “We know when these vehicles flop over, we don’t have to wait for someone to tell us and our roving operations team can get out there very quickly.”
“Bird’s mission is to get cars off the road and to help reduce carbon emissions in cities and communities in which we operate,” said Bird representative Hannah Smith. “We believe that Cambridge is a fantastic place for our service to provide more sustainability options.”
Despite getting off to a bad start, city officials say the scooter share service is a trend they know they won’t be able to stop.
“They’re a pretty flexible mode of transportation, and they’ll probably be pretty fun,” Devereux said. “And when something is both fun and convenient generally they’re in demand.”
Cambridge officials say depending on how fast state regulators move, they could have an electric scooter operation up and running by the beginning of next year.
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