ST. LOUIS — Starting Tuesday, electric scooters were supposed to be banned in downtown St. Louis, but many were still running on downtown streets.
City officials hoped the move would help cut down on some of the recent, violent incidents involving teenagers who ride them.
The City of St. Louis banned scooters in two neighborhoods: Downtown and Downtown West.
Paul Molla said electric scooters you can rent on an app and take wherever you want are helpful, especially for tourists.
“It's a way to get around town, get there a little quicker than on foot," Molla said. "If you don't have a bike when you come to town without any kind of transportation other than your feet you can speed things up on a scooter.”
But some St Louisans who work and live downtown feel differently.
"They're a mess," downtown worker Mike Huelsmann said. "They fly up and down the sidewalks and try to run you over. They run red lights and pull out in front of your car, truck, or whatever you're driving. They're all over the place. They're crazy."
He agreed with the electric scooter ban and hopes it might make the streets safer.
“I think they should ban them. They got rid of the bicycles because it was the same thing,” Huelsmann said.
Ja Banks said she's seen groups of teens riding scooters and causing problems; something the city hopes this ban will cut down on.
“It's always a lot of the younger teenage kids riding scooters. I mean it's dangerous for other people. They don't share, they throw them down anywhere they want to, so I mean just put an age limit on it not take them away though,” Banks said.
Molla said whether it's bikes or scooters, safety on the road is a big problem.
“There's a safety issue with bikes, cars anytime you're up against a vehicle you're greatly disadvantaged, so yeah your safety is a big concern,” Molla said.
There are two major companies that run scooters here in town Lime and Bird.
Lime scooters said in a statement they are working with the city to improve the experience, "We have instituted a curfew that will keep our e-scooters inactive at night and we continue to have a strict, effective, hi-tech ID scan requirement to activate an account with us. This ID scan feature prevents underage riding before it happens."
Senior Manager of Government Partnerships at Bird Adam Davis also gave this statement:
"We understand that the community is going through challenges after an unfortunate public safety incident that occurred Saturday. However, temporarily cutting off access to eco-friendly transportation in downtown St. Louis does not solve these issues and can create more problems at a time when many cannot afford to pay for gas to get to work or other necessary appointments."
The City of St. Louis did not get back to us yet about how they plan to implement the ban.