sjtmbg t1_j29j0wi wrote on December 30, 2022 at 5:02 PM

Reply to comment by BmoreCityDOT in Today was a good magnet fishing day! by TopS3cr3t

Seems like Lime would be more likely to come collect them if BDoT hadn't kicked them out last June

BmoreCityDOT t1_j29x95g wrote on December 30, 2022 at 6:31 PM

We held a competitive application process for the dockless vehicle permit, all applications were scored based on a pre-set rubric, the categories of which were shared with the operators.

We had 5 applications for 3 available permits.

Lime’s application did not score high enough to be awarded a permit; Link, Spin, and Bird scored higher.

One contributing factor to Lime’s score is that in the past 2 years they have been issued ten times as many citations as the other operators combined.

They lost points on the application because of the citations. Those citations are only issued AFTER warnings.

Citations can be appealed, Lime has not opted to appeal any of them.

sjtmbg t1_j2a12qo wrote on December 30, 2022 at 6:56 PM

Why only 3 available permits?

I'm just bitter because when Lime left I lost my job - I earned just about exactly what I pay in Balt City property taxes every month! Lime was the only company that used independent contractors, which is just perfect for someone like myself.

BmoreCityDOT t1_j2a1maj wrote on December 30, 2022 at 6:59 PM

3 permits, so that way there is diversity without it becoming to encumbering. Having too many scooter types would be frustrating to the residents, making them sign up for multiple accounts.

Honestly, we're sorry that happened to you. Lime was given multiple opportunities to change, we just couldn't ignore 10x as many citations.

sjtmbg t1_j2a3sq5 wrote on December 30, 2022 at 7:13 PM

Yeah, it's surprising to hear that. I took pride in the work and tried to deploy scooters the right way (I did occasionally see some in front of fire hydrants, etc, and I reported those to the company). From what I observe in south Baltimore, the poor deployments seem fairly evenly distributed among the companies, with Link seeming to be the worst of them.

BmoreCityDOT t1_j2a6olm wrote on December 30, 2022 at 7:32 PM

Thankfully, we're doing tech trials which only allow scooter parking in particular zones. So far, the results are pretty good, and we'll be doing more of it.

You should know, we're super grateful for the work you did. Because of your work and others like you, scooter usage really took off in this city.