A little over a month since the new restriction was enacted, city officials are still measuring whether rising safety concerns about electric scooters outweigh their speedy convenience.
Since mid-October, people haven't been able to ride an e-scooter between the hours of 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. in Bloomington. Though this is just a trial run to see if reported injuries decline, it could become permanent. This uncertainty is part of the reason why the city has delayed contract renewals with the three e-scooter companies currently operating in Bloomington.
"We have now suspended renewing licenses until we can get some visibility because we don't want to renew a set of licenses under a certain rule set and then change the rules on the operators," said Alex Crowley, director of the city's economic and sustainable development department.
City won't yet renew e-scooter agreements, requests more injury-related data
Crowley said in retrospect, it felt like e-scooters appeared in Bloomington overnight. With companies such as Lime or Bird Rides launching in cities across the nation, Bloomington was just one of many to be outfitted with speedy motorized scooters. Soon, riders were weaving around pedestrians on sidewalks and shuffling alongside cars in streets.
Previously:IU student death, injuries on e-scooters lead Bloomington to restrict riding hours
After the first fleet of e-scooters crossed city limits in 2018, a conversation over their safety followed. When e-scooters were introduced in the city, Crowley helped work on the first interim operating agreements with outside companies. Officials later passed an ordinance dictating what rules the e-scooters should abide by. Since his early work on the guidelines, he's remained part of the city's e-scooter team, which manages the overall relationship with service providers and weighs in on local parameters for safety.