Ford Motor Company has gotten into the electric scooter business in Mesa, AZ. They acquired Spin last year and launched 600 scooters in Mesa in February 2019. They join Lime, Bird, and Jump already in Mesa. Lyft also has plans to start offering electric scooters in the near future. The bulk of the scooters are staged near Mesa Community College with the hope that riders will use them for the last mile or two of travel to their destination. Spin hopes to expand to Scottsdale and Tempe too, they are awaiting permit approval. If serious injuries occur a scooter accident lawyer in Mesa, AZ may be able to advise an injured party.
Spin says they look forward to Arizona being a big market for them. They feel that the Phoenix metro area has a climate and infrastructure that lends itself to smaller electric vehicles. Lime just pulled out of Tempe over the licensing fee and other concerns, and Razor has threatened to leave, Spin believes Tempe is a promising opportunity.
Mesa is still deciding the best way to regulate electric scooters, but other valley cities already have rules in place. Scottsdale doesn’t require the companies to pay a licensing fee to operate in the city, but does have rules about where they can be staged and how quickly they must be picked up if there is a complaint.
In Tempe, companies pay a licensing fee to operate and have staging requirements. Glendale and Peoria have both ended a program with Bird, and are relying on old GoPed ordinances to ban the scooters for now.
Electric scooters are gaining popularity around the country. Users in nearly 50 U.S. cities can now rent an electric scooter using one of the companies’ app. With this rise in popularity has come growing concerns about the safety of electric scooters. The University of California, Los Angeles found that one in three people involved in electric scooter accidents require treatment for injuries at an emergency room. A scooter accident lawyer in Mesa, AZ can inform an injured person regarding his or her legal options and remedies.
Lime responded by pointing to an effort to distribute free helmets to riders and has a dedicated customer support and safety team available 24/7. Bird states that the report fails to put the injuries in context of the high number of users or the severity of injuries and deaths caused by motorcycles and automobiles.
As part of the study, a team observed electric scooter riders at a busy intersection in Los Angeles. They documented 194 people riding scooters, and about 94% of them were not wearing helmets. Wearing a helmet is of the utmost importance for preventing head and mouth injuries, and medical experts further urge people to stay alert and ride sober.
Scooters increased quickly, as the number of scooters increased in cities, so has the number of people seriously inured. There has been an increase in trauma center cases due to scooter crashes. UCLA Medical Center stated that one in three people injured in scooter accidents were injured severely enough to require emergency room treatment.
One problem is that using a helmet when riding an electric scooter can be inconvenient, since that would require people to carry a helmet around with them in the event they might use a scooter. A scooter accident lawyer in Mesa, AZ can investigate and evaluate a potential personal injury victim’s claims for injuries and damages. Contact Paul Englander, PLC today.