Electric scooters have been strategically scattered throughout Chula Vista as part of a year-long pilot program to develop the right regulations and structure for micro-mobility devices in the city.
So far, Lime is the only company to deploy their scooters, with about 450 scooters dispersed in locations including Third Avenue and Civic Center Library. The city requires 50 percent of them to be deployed west of the 805 freeway and 25 percent of them to be deployed east of the 805 freeway.
After the first month Lime can deploy an additional 250 scooters, and another 250 scooters in two months if they choose to. After three months, Lime can increase their fleet to 1,000 e-scooters with written approval from the city.
The city has capped the maximum amount of electric scooters at 5,000 for the year-long program. Chula Vista Director of Engineering Bill Valle said another micro-mobility device has shown interest in applying to the program, but has not done so yet.
Goals of the pilot program include supporting an active, healthy lifestyle, filling mobility gaps and improving connections to transit and providing a low-carbon mobility option to reduce carbon emissions.
The city will contract Remix, a company that works with more than 325 cities to track transportation data that helps cities develop transportation models.
“We look to make sure there’s a level of usage to make sure there’s not just tons out there,” Valle said.
He added that this data will not only be useful to plan where to place e-scooters in the future, but also to inform the city in terms of infrastructure.
“We don’t have a lot of data in terms of bicycle usage on the road,” Valle said. “With the data that they collect and share with us, it’ll show us where these devices are being used and that helps us with where we might need to install new bicycle lanes.”
In the future, Valle said the city may install parking corrals for the e-scooters after analyzing the data provided by Remix.
Valle urges Chula Vista residents to ride e-scooters responsibly, and make sure they are comfortable on the device.
“It’s a device not a toy, and people shouldn’t look at it like a toy, you have to follow the rules of the road just like you would a car or a bicycle,” Valle said.
To see where e-scooters are located, smartphone users can download the Lime app. Through the app, users can reserve e-scooters and pay for rides. Lime charges users 24 cents per minute of usage, or $14.40 an hour.
Lime e-scooters aren’t exclusively available to smartphone owners — anyone can pay to use a Lime e-scooter at 7Eleven or CVS.
Communications and Public Affairs Manager Alex Youn said Lime prioritizes both accessibility and safety. Lime has a community access program that lowers the cost of renting an e-scooter to $4.70 an hour, or 50 cents to unlock the scooter and seven cents per minute.
To qualify, an individual needs to demonstrate eligibility or participation in any local, state or federally-run assistance program, according to their website. Anyone with a valid government-issued ID can apply for the program at www.li.me/community-impact.
