Thanks to a vote of Hoboken city council members, residents will not be voting on whether electric scooter ride-sharing companies should operate in the city.

The City Council voted 5-2 Thursday on an ordinance to place a non-binding referendum on the ballot in November, which would have asked residents to give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down on the controversial scooters.

“I strongly believe we should be governing by listening to the voices of more residents, not stifling an opportunity to gather input on an issue through a fair and democratic method,” said Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla.

Lime and OJO currently operate the motorized scooters, which travel up to 19 miles per hour after a 6-month pilot program was unanimously approved in April. The program began on May 20 and will end on Nov. 20.

Council members James Doyle and Emily Jabbour, who proposed the referendum, voted to place the referendum on the ballot. The five “no” votes came from Michael Russo, Jen Giattino, Tiffanie Fisher, Ruben Ramos and Vanessa Falco. Peter Cunningham and Michael DeFusco did not attend the meeting.

Fisher, who represents the Second Ward, said the city has struggled to effectively address safety and enforcement concerns.

“We need to be gathering information from residents, hearing their voices and acting today. We cannot wait until November,” Fisher said of the referendum. “This is what we were elected to do.”

Fisher, who recently announced her re-election campaign said she will be introducing an ordinance to stop irresponsible riding of the e-scooters in the waterfront. She said she wants to do everything she can to make the pilot program a success, but not unless the safety of residents is ensured.

“Now is our opportunity to do everything we can to address the safety and economic concerns together to make e-scooters work, or not, for Hoboken,” said Fisher.

Ban them from entire waterfront, like Chicago & Manhattan, and then maybe families will start to view them as more than a dangerous toy that has stolen precious public space from kids. #Hoboken @RaviBhalla @VijayChaudhuri @RSharp20 @MichaelRussoNJ @HobokenEmily @jenforhoboken pic.twitter.com/ftwIJjiwoX — Bad Scooterists Hoboken (@BadHoboken) July 3, 2019

The wildly popular scooter program has its share of detractors, residents who say users are reckless and have made it unsafe for pedestrians.

“We’re working closely with the city to ensure riders are using scooters safely and properly and remain encouraged by this growing partnership,” said Phil Jones, senior director for government relations at Lime.

Lime on Tuesday announced steps to better enforce its rules of the road. Lime will add more street teams to remind people to ride safely, obey the rules, keep scooters in proper park locations and to re-balance the scooter.

Lime officials said the company will host a scooter training course called First Ride Academy to teach riders the proper way to and help familiarize them with the scooter.

Lime also vowed that it would remove users from the platform for illegal behavior, including riding on sidewalks, running red lights and underage riding. Lime will also install new placards on scooters and implement in-app messaging to caution against underage riding. Riders misusing the platform can be reported by alerting Lime of the time of day and ID number of the offending scooter.

Lime said it uses an ID check for new users to certify they are at least 18 years old, but children are seen riding the scooters on a regular basis.

Joshua Rosario may be reached at JRosario@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @JRyRosario.