City council votes to put hold on Lime Scooters in Clovis

(Photo courtesy of Lime/Facebook)

Scooters have become a very popular mode of transportation in various cities around the country, but for now at least, Clovis will not be one of them.

While the city of Fresno recently approved a six-month trial period for 500 Lime scooters in the city starting next week, the Clovis City Council voted unanimously to be included in the scooter dead zone at its weekly meeting on Monday.

The vote comes about a year after another scooter company, Bird scooters, were given a cease-and-desist order by Fresno after the business was caught operating in the city without a license.

According to Corporal Curtis Shurtliff, Bird scooters were found abandoned in dumpsters, canalways and on trails, prompting Fresno to take action.

The council resolved to geofence the city of Clovis so that the scooters will not be operational while in its borders while monitoring how the scooters are received during Fresno’s trial period.

If at the end of the year it looks like it was pretty successful in the city of Fresno, then we would likely come back after looking at their rules of engagement to see if it worked for us because it would make sense since we’re contiguous to have the same type of rules,” Shurtliff said.

Lime uses geofencing- a feature that uses GPS satellites to detect when the scooters enter the geofenced area and slows down them from their top speed of 15 mph to 3 mph, which in general is people’s walking speed.

According to one of the options presented at the meeting, if a scooter was found within the city limits, the company would be notified and given two hours to pick up the scooters or they would be impounded and a fee imposed.

The vote signifies a deviation of the way that Fresno and Clovis have opted to deal with the issue of scooters operating in their respective city limits.

“The city of Fresno may be happy with what happens. We may not,” Clovis Councilmember Bob Whalen said. “We have different standards sometimes than the city of Fresno.”

Michael graduated from Fresno State in May 2019 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in print journalism. During his time at the university, he served as sports and managing editor for The Collegian, Fresno State’s student-run newspaper. In addition to the Clovis Roundup, Michael has written for The Fresno Bee, the Kingsburg Recorder and Selma Enterprise. He has a passion for sports and can be found on the sidelines at local games, bringing the citizens of Clovis the athletics news they deserve.