SEATTLE — Electric scooters could finally hit Seattle streets, more than a year after Mayor Jenny Durkan said she was open to allowing the devices that became commonplace in Portland and Austin.
The Seattle City Council’s transportation committee voted Wednesday to approve legislation allowing free-floating rentable scooters. The council will vote on the idea in early September.
Under a plan from the Seattle Department of Transportation, private companies would be allowed to offer scooters as soon as September. Nine companies have already applied, according to SDOT.
Scooter riding would be barred on sidewalks and allowed in bike lanes and on roads. SDOT would allow up to 1,500 scooters in the city to start and up to 6,000 eventually. The devices could be a mix of standing and seated electric scooters with top speeds of 15 mph.
Scooters have been around in other cities for several years. Spokane and Bothell allow scooters, and they became available in White Center last week under a King County program.
Durkan was initially resistant to scooters. Seattle later faced an ultimately unsuccessful challenge to its environmental review of a possible scooter program, and the coronavirus sidelined many nonpandemic issues at City Hall this spring.
Councilmember Alex Pedersen, who chairs the transportation committee, voted against forwarding the legislation to the full council. In an email, Pedersen said the proposal lacked specifics about safety and how SDOT would measure the success of a scooter program. Pedersen said he was “not willing to vote yes for something that lacks so many details.”
Councilmember Dan Strauss, who sponsored the legislation, said he still has “many concerns” about scooters, but “we are at a point where the academic conversation has gone on long enough that if we don’t try this … we are just going to continue circling around the same questions that can only be answered if we try it out in the real world.”
Under the council’s proposed change to city law, scooters would not be allowed to be ridden on sidewalks “unless there is no alternative for a motorized foot scooter to travel over a sidewalk that is part of a bicycle or pedestrian path.” City law requires scooter riders to wear helmets.
Similar to free-floating rental bikes, Seattle would charge private scooter companies permitting fees, including up to $150 per scooter per year. Three companies would be allowed, and both standing and seated scooters might be available. Seated scooters provide options for people with disabilities, said Connor Inslee, associate executive director of Outdoors for All, which offers adaptive bikes and other recreation for people with disabilities.
