What happens to electric scooters in Milwaukee in the winter? How Bird, Lime, Spin plan for the snow

Sophie Carson | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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We all know that Milwaukeeans can brave harsh Wisconsin winters. But can the city’s fleet of electric scooters?

After the season’s first significant snowfall coated southeastern Wisconsin on Halloween, e-scooters were back on Milwaukee streets the next day.

What will happen to the scooters when winter hits with full force is at the discretion of scooter companies and the city’s Department of Public Works, but here’s the current plan for the up to 1,350 scooters on Milwaukee’s streets:

Staff from Bird, Lime and Spin will monitor the forecast and decide to take scooters off the roads during storms or when they determine it is unsafe. Local scooter-chargers, who typically collect them nightly to refuel, will return them the next day or when it becomes safe again.

If Lime staff removes the scooters, they’ll give users an in-app message letting them know, a spokesman said.

Spin plans to “slowly ramp down operations as ridership becomes less frequent in colder markets.” Bird and Lime spokespeople did not mention removing scooters permanently for winter.

One of these scooter companies, ahead of the Halloween snow, informed the Department of Public Works — which oversees the scooters as well as plows — that it would keep its fleet indoors to avoid interfering with snow-clearing operations. That prompted the DPW to ask the other two companies to also keep them off the roads.

These rules are only applicable until Dec. 31, though. That’s when the city’s scooter pilot program ends. At that point, the city must decide whether to keep the scooters on the road and in what capacity.

The pilot allowed for up to 350 Bird scooters and 500-strong fleets of both Lime and Spin scooters. Beginning in the summer, the program was meant to be a city-sanctioned test period to study complaints, ridership levels and safety risks. The previous summer Bird scooters descended on Milwaukee unannounced, causing frustration at City Hall and ultimately leading to litigation.

How Milwaukee likes the scooters so far

Preliminary study results, released in late October, show an average of 3,500 people rode daily. There were about 4.3 rides per scooter per day, and about 320,000 rides between summer and Oct. 20.

About three-quarters of the 113 complaints DPW received regarding the scooters mentioned people riding on the sidewalks instead of in bike lanes — an activity Mayor Tom Barrett decried in early August, threatening to cancel the pilot.

According to data collected in a DPW survey, 36% of respondents took two or more scooter rides and nearly half of scooter trips replaced a car trip. Respondents’ highest-ranked concerns were about riders’ behavior around cars and sidewalks. The most common benefits riders listed? That scooters create another transportation option.

Near the end of the pilot program DPW officials will make one of three recommendations to the Common Council: continue the pilot, create a formal business license for scooter companies or prohibit scooters altogether.

Midwest cities handle scooters in winter differently

This type of test period is something other snowy Midwest cities know well. Chicago ended its four-month pilot program Oct. 15 and had no plans to extend it, sparing the scooters a Windy City winter.

Last year, Minneapolis officials timed its four-month pilot program to end in late November, before winter struck in full force. Its new pilot allows for 2,000 scooters and runs through March 2020. It’s unclear what exactly will happen between then, though.

“If riding conditions become unsafe after Nov. 30, the city may require suspension of operations temporarily or through the remainder of the pilot term,” a statement on the Minneapolis city website reads.

Scooter companies’ plan in Detroit last winter was the same as Milwaukee’s — they’ll remove scooters if it becomes necessary. And scooters didn’t work if someone happened to find one on Detroit’s streets during inclement weather, according to the Free Press.

If you want to hop on an e-scooter in the next week, look first at the weather.

A round of snow Wednesday was set to drop 2 to 6 inches on southeast Wisconsin, and meteorologists expect temperatures to remain below freezing through the weekend, with another bout of snow Saturday night. Highs early next week may not make it out of the teens, the weather service predicted.

To participate in the ongoing DPW survey, click here.

Contact Sophie Carson at (414) 223-5512 or scarson@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @SCarson_News.