Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico – Electric scooter sharing services are coming to a busy Guadalajara suburb next month. Scooter companies Bird, Frog, Grin and Movo will each place 250 rental units on the streets of Zapopan after the municipality approved a pilot program that will begin testing their practicality on December 2.
The idea behind the pilot program is to make it easier to get around, while saving commuters time and providing environmental benefits. Here’s how it works:
The electric scooter companies will charge 10-15 pesos (US $0.50-0.75) to unlock the scooters with an app and 2-3 pesos (US $0.10-0.15) per minute to use them.
Each of the scooter rental business will be required to carry insurance and police users to ensure they utilize the scooters in a safe and respectable manner.
Beyond their own branding, the companies are not allowed to place advertising on the scooters, and any company that places more than 250 scooters on the streets will be pulled from the project.
For their part, users of the scooters will have to comply with city regulations. They will have to ride in bike lanes or the right lane of traffic, and are not allowed to ride on sidewalks.
They must respect all traffic signals, rights of way and ride with, not against, traffic. They will also be obliged to park them in special scooter parking zones or vehicle spaces, and not obstruct sidewalks.
Once the pilot program has been approved in Zapopan, Guadalajara is expected to join the initiative to improve mobility conditions with a sustainable alternative that will reduce pollution and vehicle saturation in the greater Guadalajara metropolitan area.
Sources: Milenio • Mexico News Daily