Attention, St. Paul: Lime, Bird and a newcomer to the St. Paul market — Spin — will soon be scooting to a street corner near you.

The city council is poised to approve agreements with each of the three e-scooter companies Wednesday, allowing them to place 300 to 500 dockless scooters apiece on city streets through Nov. 30.

“We would be willing to entertain a fourth vendor, but we have not been approached by a fourth vendor at this time,” said Reuben Collins, a city transportation planner.

Under the agreements, the companies will pay St. Paul $100 per scooter upfront, as well as a 25-cent “park impact fee” for any trips that begin or end on city parkland.

They also will have to reimburse the city for staff time involved in removing any scooters obstructing curb ramps, street-maintenance work and the like, at a cost of $35 per scooter. Getting a scooter out of city storage would cost the companies $20.

A GUERRILLA-STYLE ENTRY

The agreements state: “Vendors will have two hours to relocate scooters if notified between 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays, not including holidays, and 10 hours at all other times. Vendor must promptly notify the city of corrective action taken.”

E-scooters have proliferated in recent years in urban markets and college campuses throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia, drawing public interest, controversy and legal pushback.

Santa Monica-based Bird rolled into St. Paul last July guerrilla-style, with little to no prior notice and no permits, causing the city to order the e-scooter company to fly the coop. The city council and mayor’s office quickly drafted rules around station-less scooters, and Bird and Lime deployed them throughout the city, though most were placed downtown.

The scooters, which use electric motors and on-board GPS units, are activated by smartphone and charge riders by the minute.

As part of its recent request for proposals, the city asked that vendors show they’re willing to redistribute their scooters upon notice so they’re not too sparsely or densely concentrated. Special attention was given to low-income areas and communities of color.

The agreements state: “On a daily basis … a minimum of 30 percent of the fleet must be distributed throughout ‘Areas of Concentrated Poverty’ where 50 percent or more of the residents are people of color, as defined by the Metropolitan Council.”

Each vendor may deploy a maximum of 150 scooters downtown. Related Articles Marchers shut down I-94 through St. Paul to protest Breonna Taylor decision

Metro Transit workers reject contract offer, vote to authorize strike

St. Paul man charged in connection with gang-related drive-by shooting

St. Paul City Council approves $600,000 charge for downtown improvement district

St. Paul schools superintendent gets high marks, but board wants progress on equity, enrollment, student achievement

Bird was founded in Santa Monica in 2017 by a former Uber and Lyft executive. Lime, formerly LimeBike, launched in San Francisco that same year and has since partnered with Uber in some markets on pedal-assist electric bike rentals.

Spin was founded in San Francisco in 2016. The company was acquired last November by Ford Motor Co. as part of its Ford Smart Mobility venture, which was established in 2016 to focus on emerging technology.