Paging Gov. Hochul!
City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams is demanding that the city "pause" its successful e-scooter program in eastern Queens citing sidewalks allegedly rendered impassible by the micromobility devices — but her demand flies in the face of widespread use of the scooters, especially among the tens of thousands of residents who don't have cars.
Supporters of the Queens pilot — as well as representatives from the scooter companies themselves — were stunned that the Speaker would bow to local NIMBYs and call for a "reset" and a "pause," language that echoed the words of the gridlock governor when she canceled congestion pricing.
"It’s clear from the massive ridership we’ve seen that a pause would negatively impact tens of thousands of Queens residents," said Nicole Yearwood, a spokesperson for Lime, one of the three companies operating in two Eastern Queens community boards.
"Given how much Queens residents are voting with their rides in support of this program, we believe the best path forward is to work together rather than completely take it away from our neighbors who have already come to rely on shared e-scooters as a safe, affordable, and sustainable transportation option in parts of the city that desperately need more ways to get around, not fewer."
Yearwood added that the company is "in the process of expanding our staff and implementing fixes to improve parking."
Only Lime provided ridership statistics to Streetsblog, but they are vast.
Since the eastern Queens program launched on June 27, Lime has served 200,000 trips, or an 33,000 trips every week. In The Bronx, Lime customers have taken 2.9 million rides on the company's scooters since the August 2021 launch, first in two community boards, and later to four.
More than 250,000 trips have been made via Lime Access, a program that provides discounts to anyone public housing residents and recipients of government assistance.
Perhaps most important, 45 percent of Lime's riders in The Bronx and Queens use a scooter to get to transit, and the areas of Queens where Speaker Adams hopes to end the scooter program have very limited subway access.
"One of the most frequent trips we see riders make is to connect with the limited public transit in the area," Lime said in a statement. "This is a part of the city where the subway lines end, and getting around immediately becomes more challenging if you don’t own a car and live far from the subway stops. Lime helps to extend the reach of public transit, easing connections and cutting down commute times."
Bird said it found similar ridership patterns. The company said its scooters have completed 250,000 rides, with 65 percent starting or ending within 50 feet of a transit stop.
Company spokesperson Adam Davis said that Bird it is working closely with DOT on service improvements" and, "as such, we believe that Speaker Adams’s letter is misguided and will hurt the thousands of Queens residents who have quickly taken to using scooters to connect to transit. In addition, the Speaker's contention that scooters are unsafe is simply not backed up by the data."
And Veo said its scooters had served more than 120,000 rides across neighborhoods from Flushing to Jamaica, "connecting residents to transit, work, school, shopping, and more," said company spokesperson Paige Miller.
Adams disputed all that in her letter, which was first reported by amNY, instead outlining her "profound concerns" about the program.
"My constituents have consistently raised questions and concerns about the safety hazards created when e-scooters are frequently left on sidewalks and streets, obstructing pedestrians and all road users," she wrote to Rodriguez. "The lack of orderly operation and enforcement when e-scooters are left on public streets and sidewalks with reckless abandon must be urgently addressed."
Adams added that she demanded "an immediate operational pause" until "necessary protocols and protections are enacted to prioritize the safety of all residents, while supporting local transportation needs."
Speaker Adams's letter comes three weeks after several Queens lawmakers, including Council Member Sandra Ung, made false claims to campaign to end the borough's e-scooter program.
None of the lawmakers mentioned road violence caused by car drivers in their communities — something one activist pointed that out on social media:
The Department of Transportation said its Bronx pilot was successful.
The three companies served 86,000 riders who took more than 1,000,000 trips in the first 12 months of the pilot, an agency report said, with the highest ridership on weekdays, evidence that scooter-share is aiding in commutes.
"Ridership was high on commercial corridors and near MTA transit, including subway stations, bus and ferry stops," the report showed.
As such Queens residents and activists were excited to welcome the scooters to the World's Borough when that pilot launched. Now, they'd be sad if it was killed.
"Everyone should have the freedom to choose how they get around, and e-scooters are a particularly convenient option for last-mile commutes in transit deserts," said Laura Shepard, who lives in Queens and is an organizer for Transportation Alternatives. "Brand-new options like e-scooters also need space and infrastructure to be real and safe options, and instead of banning new types of mobility we should be redesigning our streets and transit systems to encourage New Yorkers to choose sustainable ways to get around."
There is a key difference between the Queens pilot and the Bronx pilot — Queens has more cars and more car enablers.
In the four community boards comprising The Bronx scooter pilot, roughly 58.6 percent of households have access to at least one car. In the two community boards that comprise the Queens pilot, 75 percent of the households have access to a car.
Nearly 100,000 households in The Bronx zone do not have a car. But only 35,000 households in the Queens zone don't. Studies show that car owners don't understand how non-car owners get around — and some of those avid drivers are leaders in city government.
Veo spokesperson Miller said that her company tracks its customers through rider surveys that show that 52 percent of riders do not own or have access to a car. And 77 percent say they have been able to decrease car travel, which helps to reduce traffic and greenhouse gas emissions.
DOT spokesperson Vin Barone reiterated what the scooter companies said, but added it all up: there have been close to 500,000 e-scooter trips in Queens since launch and 37,000 unique rider accounts. That's an average of almost 4,500 trips per day.
“Our e-scooter sharing program in Southeast Queens and Flushing builds on the overwhelming success we’ve seen with our operations in the East Bronx," Barone said. "This expansion into Queens provides critical connections to major transportation and commercial hubs for roughly 600,000 residents — and we are committed to working with companies to make service improvements, including the installation of additional scooter corrals to better organize parking.”
He also reminded Queens residents that if they see an inappropriately parked scooter, they need only reach out to the companies at the following places:
- Bird: 866-205-2442, birdnyc@bird.co
- Lime: 888-546-3345, help-new-york@li.me
- Veo: 855-836-2256, opsnyc@veoride.com
Here's the letter in full:
