Starting Friday, Elizabeth will become the state’s third and largest municipality to host an e-scooter sharing program, officials said.

Residents, visitors and commuters will be able to rent one of 400 electric scooters made available across the city at a cost of $1 to unlock and 20 cents per minute to ride, according to Elizabeth officials.

“Whether you are using these scooters to travel to your destination or just navigating to lunch,” Mayor J. Christian Bollwage said in a statement, “these micro-mobility devices can help fill in the gaps between public transportation for hundreds of commuters each day, resulting in reduced traffic congestion, parking issues and more.”

Bollwage and Lime officials will officially announce the program Wednesday afternoon at the city’s River Trail walkway and bike path off South Broad Street, anticipated to be a popular scooting spot. The Elizabeth Police Department will use two scooters painted in EPD colors for patrols.

The pilot program will run for six months, Darren Bryden, the city’s public information officer, said. Scooters will be distributed around the city based on where there is a need, and they will be rebalanced and moved every night, based on the data, Bryden said.

As part of a revenue sharing agreement with Lime, the city will receive 10 cents per ride, which Bryden said would offset the cost of policing the scooters.

Lime has three vans dedicated to maintaining, repairing, and charging Elizabeth’s scooters, Bryden said. People can also sign up as “juicers” to help charge the scooters, which earns them a little money on the side, he said.

“Once the governor signed the law making (electric scooters) legal in New Jersey, we got lots of phone calls from lots of vendors wanting to get a foothold in New Jersey,” Bryden said. “We settled on Lime for a pilot and we’ll see what happens.”

The scooters are also GPS-enabled, according to a press release, allowing users to find, unlock, and pick up a nearby scooter using their smartphone. Riders can end their rides on the app and park the scooter by the street curb or a bike rack, the release said.

Bryden said two scooters were donated to the Elizabeth Police Department, for officers to patrol the city’s river trail.

Hoboken became the first city in the state to roll out an electric scooter system in May, also using Lime, shortly after Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation paving the way for their widespread use by regulating the two-wheeled, zero-emission personal transportation devices essentially as bicycles. Asbury Park then partnered with a Lime competitor, SPIN, in August for its electric scooter pilot program, while Jersey City has also been exploring a scooter program.

Brianna Kudisch may be reached at bkudisch@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @briannakudisch. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.

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