HOBOKEN — The City Council will introduce an ordinance Wednesday night that bolsters the city’s local regulations on its 300 electric scooters in operation, and adds a fee schedule for multiple offenders.

The ordinance, which is slated for a first reading Wednesday night, will allow the city to charge e-scooter riders who break the rules up to $500 per offense. After the city launched six-month pilot programs with Lime and Ojo, the police department was inundated with reports of scooters breaking traffic laws, prompting officials to draft the ordinance.

The penalty for first offenses — which include riding on sidewalks, failing to obey traffic signals, riding in the wrong direction of traffic, or carrying more than one person at one time — would result in a fee of $20, according to the ordinance.

The penalty fee then rises to $100 after a second offense, and $500 after a third. After a fourth offense, the rider will be suspended from riding a city-sponsored scooter for one year.

The ordinance, if approved tonight, will be voted on for final approval at the next council meeting.

Hoboken’s new means of transportation has been immensely popular. One week after its rollout on May 20, Lime reported it saw 10,300 people take more than 21,500 rides on the dockless scooters — which was “higher than any other city in the world where we operate,” said Phil Jones, senior director of East Coast government relations and strategic partnerships at Lime.

Data on Ojo's first week was not immediately available.

But the program has not been without its concerns. A number of officials have raised questions regarding the safety of the scooters (as well as how much money the city is getting from the two companies).

The city’s introduction had a bit of a rocky start, giving some police officials a headache. Videos posted on social media showed riders blatantly ignoring traffic signals, weaving in and out of traffic while heading the wrong way on one-way roads, and riding on sidewalks.

Scooters are supposed to obey common traffic laws.

Police had one notable incident in which a scooter traveling the wrong way on a one-way road ran into a car on Saturday near Eighth and Park streets. The driver received a summons but no injuries were reported.

And "amazingly," no other injuries have been reported thus far, police Chief Ken Ferrante said.

Things have “very much so” calmed since the first days of operation and “the level of complaints have decreased to minimal,” he added.

“You still see violations out there — young kids on them, people on sidewalks and people not obeying traffic,” Ferrante said. “But it is definitely not as chaotic as it was when it rolled out.”

Corey W. McDonald may be reached at cmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @cwmcdonald_. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.