Edmond To Discuss Allowing Electric Scooters At Next Week's City Council Meeting

Lime Scooters, does Edmond need them? That is the question that its City Council members are weighing in on at their next meeting on Monday.

“We have actually been in conversation with Lime for a few months trying to work towards a solution for them to deploy scooters in Edmond,” said Casey Moore, City of Edmond spokesman.

He thinks that Lime sought out Edmond to place scooters because of the downtown area and the University of Central Oklahoma.

“There is a real thought that’s where the bulk of the scooters would be used,” said Moore.

Moore has carefully listened to both sides of the argument for and against the scooters. One of the main concerns they have heard is safety, which he said is why the city is looking closely at the idea.

“We want to make sure people are safe on our roads, not just those that are riding the scooters, but also those that are driving vehicles around the scooters,” said Moore.

The topic was discussed back in June because City Council members wanted to hear more from people, like the Edmond bicycle committee.

“A lot of things that were discussed were concerns with biking in general,” said Chase Ray, the vice chair of the Edmond bicycle committee.

If there were to be scooters, Ray thinks that would help change the culture in Edmond to adapt to more modes of travel besides cars.

“Hey yeah, there is going to be people on bikes or on scooters in this area, so I should slow down or vice versa,” said Ray. “If I am a scooter user I should use the area legally.”

Ray said to expect the scooters to share the street with cars, since in Edmond it is illegal to ride bikes on the sidewalks.

“It is not legal to ride a bike on the sidewalk, so you would most likely see the scooters on the streets with the bikes,” said Ray.

If the scooters get the approval, Ray thinks there will be some adjusting, but in the end it would be a good thing.

“It is just a fun thing to do and overtime it gets normalized and people will start to use them for functional purposes instead of joyriding,” said Ray.

The topic will be discussed at Monday's City Council meeting, but there is no word yet whether or not a decision would be made for or against the scooters.