NEW: Council Majority Leader Blasts Scooter Companies Failing to Clean Up and Delaying Dredging
GoLocalProv News Team
NEW: Council Majority Leader Blasts Scooter Companies Failing to Clean Up and Delaying Dredging
As GoLocalProv News Editor Kate Nagle was first to report back in June, GoLocal unveiled that at least a half dozen of the electric scooters by Bird and Lime were submerged in the river.
The scooters dumped in the Providence River raise questions about who is responsible for their removal. It is nearly a year after the transportation devices made their debut — then retreat, then reintroduction — in Rhode Island’s capital.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTAccording to Ryan’s statement, the dredging was to have been completed by Christmas, but now will continue into January.
In June, representatives from Bird and Lime told GoLocalProv that if they are contacted about scooters impinging on public property, that they will intervene.
"Vandalism of any kind should not be accepted, full stop. Vandalism can include damage to local storefronts, broken windows of cars, and theft or destruction of e-scooters,” said a spokesperson for Bird in a statement.
“At Bird, we have zero tolerance for vandalism and aggressively address it when it occurs in communities where we are meeting the needs for sustainable transportation options. We encourage everyone in these communities — whether they ride Bird or not — to report vandalism done to or with our vehicles as we are committed to acting swiftly and effectively. If you see something, report it to us at [email protected]."
Lime Scooters said that if alerted — they will go an try and retrieve the errant scooters.
"Lime picks up any scooters found in waterways or other unreachable areas as soon as we are alerted to their location."
Now, Ryan is claiming that the abandoned and dumped scooters are increasing costs to the overall dredging.
Recently, numerous news outlets have reported that the dredging of the Providence and Woonasquatucket Rivers, a project which was to be finalized by Christmas, will go over budget by hundreds of thousands of dollars and will continue into January.
The huge volume of trash and toxins being pulled from the rivers has caused costs to rise and scheduling delays. Amongst the piles of clothes and plastic, crews have also extracted over a dozen electric scooters and bicycles.
This serves as another reminder that these businesses skirted their contractual obligations to maintain the devices in their fleets. It is not the job of the City, State, or the Coastal Resources Management Council to contain and decommission these devices from our precious waterways.
These companies, like any other companies that want to do business in the City of Providence, are expected to uphold their end of the bargain. The electric scooter and bicycle companies did not do that before leaving town and now the taxpayers are, quite literally, stuck cleaning up their mess.
Moving forward, the City needs to reconsider the types of agreements it enters into with electronic transportation device companies. From recent experiences, it appears that we are lacking a comprehensive regulatory framework to hold these companies accountable.
This is why I am working on drafting an ordinance that codifies our expectations, houses operational and financial requirements, and puts businesses on notice with explicit penalties in the case of non-compliance.
I strongly support any measure that preserves our environment and natural resources; including making micro-mobility options more widely available for our visitors and residents.
As a City, we must also do a better job sweeping our streets regularly and enforcing the plastic bag ordinance. When we don’t enforce these environmentally-responsible measures across the board, we end up with the massive piles of garbage currently being pulled out of our rivers.
We need to stop paying lip service and take all litter and contamination, from plastic bags to electric bicycles, more seriously if we are resolute on creating a more resilient City.