The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) suspended Capital Bikeshare, a bicycle sharing system that serves DC, and banned vehicles of scooter companies from the streets for the public’s safety before the city entered its third night of protests.
“At the point where it is a safety issue, we listen to the safety professionals,” a DDOT spokesperson told WAMU about the decision which was made early Sunday morning after they received a request from the police.
Some individuals reportedly used scooters as projectiles during Saturday’s protest in the District, which later turned violent, according to the police.
The scooter companies operating in DC, Spin, Lime, Lyft, and Skip, followed DDOT’s order and withdrew their vehicles from the streets.
Capital Bikeshare will be offline and bikes will be unavailable in DC this evening, Sunday May 31st.
— Capital Bikeshare (@bikeshare) May 31, 2020
In late 2019, DDOT approved 10,000 e-scooters and 5,000 e-bikes for DC’s 2020 dockless vehicle program belonging to four electric scooter companies and two e-bike companies, which was approximately a 60 percent increase from last year’s figures.
Ward 3 Council member Mary Cheh introduced of a bill in November 2019, calling for strict regulation on the use of electric scooters that increasingly affects the city’s traffic. Cheh told the DC Council that many scooter users violate safety rules while they ride among pedestrians and cars at high speeds.
The District’s dockless vehicle program is aiming to help proceed Mayor Muriel Bowser’s “goal to provide accessible transportation options across all eight wards,” DDOT Director Jeff Marootian said in a statement last year.