{"id":5513,"date":"2020-01-08T13:16:16","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T18:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=5513"},"modified":"2020-01-08T13:16:33","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T18:16:33","slug":"are-we-ready-for-scooters-lakeland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2020\/01\/08\/are-we-ready-for-scooters-lakeland\/","title":{"rendered":"Are we ready for scooters Lakeland?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"750\" height=\"320\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Asset16.png?resize=750%2C320&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Asset16.png?w=750&amp;ssl=1 750w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Asset16.png?resize=300%2C128&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jed and Latisha Irvine, co-founders of<a href=\"https:\/\/www.leafrides.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&nbsp;Leaf<\/a>, asked city\ncommissioners to consider launching an electric scooter pilot program in\ndowntown Lakeland on Monday. They are the third scooter company to approach the\ncity, according to Commissioner Stephanie Madden, and are hoping that&#8217;s a lucky\ncharm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5yjH3vb198E\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;It&#8217;s very popular to hate on what we are doing,&#8221;\nJed Irvine said. &#8220;We can take steps to help negate those problems.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Irvines are a pair of senior college students enrolled\nat the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Together, they launched Leaf, a micro\nmobility service that focuses on electric scooter rentals as a convenient and\nenvironmentally friendly transit option in their junior year of college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Julie Townsend, executive director of L<a href=\"http:\/\/ldda.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">akeland Downtown Development Authority,<\/a>&nbsp;said\nthe couple sent her an email offering to run a pilot program involving 45\nscooters for rent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;It&#8217;s a good fit in terms of population and the\nLakeland downtown area,&#8221; Jed Irvine said. &#8220;It would be a good fit for\nour size operation and what we could provide.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jed Irvine said the roughly 103,000 population of Lakeland\nis similar to the nearly 98,000 population of Duluth. He said Leaf succeeded in\nits first year and now wants to expand the business to a warmer climate where\nscooters can be used year round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Commissioner Scott Franklin was among those who expressed\nconcerns at the commission&#8217;s Jan. 3 agenda study about permitting a scooter\nrental to operate in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;In my personal opinion, we&#8217;re not ready for it,&#8221;\nhe said. &#8220;I think it&#8217;s a disaster.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">City Manager Tony Delgado said the commissioners would need\nto create a policy or laws governing who would be liable for riders&#8217; accidents\nor injuries, responsibility for maintenance, where users can travel and how\nthey get picked up and dropped off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Commissioner Bill Read asked whether the Irvines could\nprovide statistics, based on their first year of operation in Duluth, on how\nmany riders fall off, get into accidents or get injured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Liability would be a big concern to us as a\ncity,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We would have to make sure we are exempt from that,\nbut it might be something to pursue in the not too distant future.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jed Irvine said that Leaf generally sets up designated\nparking zones and geofencing, which prevents users from traveling outside approved\nareas by killing the scooter&#8217;s throttle. Users would be required to return the\nscooter to predesignated zones to end their rental, or keep getting billed. The\nprogram is set up through an app using QR codes, according to Jed Irvine, and\nrental rates vary based on the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lakeland resident MeLynda Rinker encouraged city officials\nto consider an electric scooter rental program, seeing it as complementary for\ndowntown apartment owners and the AirBnB she operates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mayor Bill Mutz encouraged the Irvines to have a sitdown\nmeeting with Angelo Rao, the city&#8217;s traffic operations manager, and Chuck\nBarmby, Lakeland&#8217;s transportation and development review manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;If we can have a discussion, we&#8217;d love to have a\nprototype to start with and a clean model,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Irvines offered to share the ordinances they helped\ncreate in Duluth with Lakeland city staff to be considered alongside other\ncities&#8217; policies like Tampa and Nashville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I&#8217;ve never had a person hop on and not change their\nmind,&#8221; Jed Irvine said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To his credit, a handful of Lakeland residents who took test\nrides on an electric scooter Monday evening in City Hall&#8217;s parking lot were\nlaughing and pleased with their experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jed and Latisha Irvine, co-founders of&nbsp;Leaf, asked city commissioners to consider launching an electric scooter pilot program in downtown Lakeland on Monday. They are the third scooter company to approach&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}