Despite a seemingly overnight explosion of dockless electric scooters on the streets of Detroit, city leadership is controlling the rollout of the new mobility option in an effort to develop a cohesive strategy.

Detroit is essentially in a pilot program for the rentable scooters from Los Angeles-based Bird and San Francisco-based Lime, currently capping the number of scooters in Detroit to 300 for each company, said Mark de la Vergne, chief of mobility innovation for the city.

Bird landed in Detroit less than 60 days ago and Lime just more than 30 days ago, but they've already made an impact. Each scooter is rented between six and nine times a day and have exceeded 50,000 rides total, de la Vergne said.

But as scooter mania floods several major U.S. metropolitan areas, city officials are scrambling to regulate — Ann Arbor confiscated dozens of Bird scooters that were left on city streets, sidewalks and bike lanes — and discover the role for the relatively affordable and undeniably fun devices in the broader conversation on transit.

The novelty may wear off and left will be a horde of what were viewed as only kids' toys 18 months ago.

Several questions linger, even as visitors and residents continue to zoom around Detroit's Central Business District at a top speed of 15 mph.

If Detroit is truly positioning itself to be atop the heap of mobility innovation, where does "micromobility," like the Bird and Lime scooters, fit in the mission? Can scooters exist as a new, effective transportation option for affluent city dwellers and last-mile commuters and Detroit's largely low-income residents?