ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis mayor's administration on Tuesday told major scooter rental firms that it will keep in place into 2023 a ban on their operations downtown.
In response to crime concerns, Mayor Tishaura Jones in June banned electric scooters in downtown and Downtown West.
One of her officials, Director of Public Safety Daniel Isom, on Tuesday told scooter firms Bird and Lime that the city has decided to continue "halting" their operations in those neighborhoods at least until the end of 2022.
Isom said other cities had created scooter-free zones or limited their operations.
"The City of St. Louis will continue to take a comprehensive approach in updating the scooter permit to address issues and concerns raised by residents, businesses, and community stakeholders," Isom told the companies in a letter. "This evaluation of a comprehensive approach to scooters will assist in better understanding the challenges in operations for the transportation option to be successful. We plan to revisit operations in Downtown and Downtown West in early 2023 based on performance and further community feedback.
"Scooter sharing will remain available across many of the neighborhoods in the City of St. Louis," Isom added.
A Lime executive, Director of Government and Community Affairs LeAaron Foley, said the company is "extremely disappointed by the city's decision especially in light of our unprecedented efforts to improve the shared e-scooter experience in St. Louis for riders and non-riders alike."
"We've worked with the city to implement strict ID scan requirements and invested significant time and resources on educational campaigns to improve rider behavior," Foley said.
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