Electric scooters could soon be allowed on public sidewalks

El Paso City Council is considering whether to allow electric scooters on public sidewalks.

At a special meeting on Monday, City Council heard a presentation about the proposal and about the pilot program that launched in early October.

Glide, an El Paso based scooter company, launched the service in downtown and other parts of central and west El Paso.

The city is testing it out to see if it will eventually allow more scooter companies to operate in the city.

During the company’s testing and with the help of the El Paso Police Department, Glide determined that allowing the scooters on sidewalks is the best option when a rider is unable to navigate on the streets.

El Paso police say some of the most common injuries they are seeing from the scooters are from riders who have been ejected from the scooter while riding on a bumpy road.

Glide’s chief executive officer and co-founder, Jonathan Lopez, says having the sidewalk as an option for riders is the best solution.

“What we tell our customers is whenever there is a bicycle lane, you should be on the bike lane at all times,” Lopez said. “If there’s not a bike lane, then it comes down to rider discretion and if a sidewalk is large enough and open then be on the sidewalk as long as you are making sure that the pedestrians have the right of way first.”

The way Glide works is a rider uses an app to find a scooter and once the ride is over the customer can leave the scooter anywhere.

Glide has employees who go around picking up the scooters, so there is no docking station and that’s one of the things El Paso police would like to change.

If there’s no docking station, there’s concern that the scooters could become a nuisance with people leaving them all over town, but glide is working on it.

“What makes these scooters so incredible is the ability for citizens to be able to ride to whatever destination they’re going and not have to worry about dropping the scooters off at a dock,” Lopez said. “However, making sure the scooters are parked correctly is the issue and that’s what we have come up with as a solution to proactively make sure that those scooters are parked correctly.”

Also, with a top speed of only 15mph, the scooters are not allowed on streets with a speed limit of 35mph or higher.

City Council is expected to vote on whether to allow the scooters on sidewalks at Tuesday’s meeting.