“Our overall approach to our mobility system is safety.”
And Grand Rapids Deputy City Manager Kate Berens says e -bike and e-scooter users need to ride responsibly.
“We need those users to be smart about when they are using micromobility.”
“We are experiencing some accidents.”
Fire Chief Brad Brown says first responders have rushed to over 70 e- bike and scooter crashes so far this year.
“We are seeing pretty serious head injuries. You need to wear a helmet and you also need to follow the traffic laws."
Instead of police enforcing traffic laws, Mobile G-R director Jessica Smith says they teach safety and the rules of the road on multiple platforms, but so far they have not found a way to get helmets on riders.
“That is an ongoing challenge how do you get folks helmets how do you get people to wear them what is the practicality of carrying your helmet around there is a lot of conversation in the industry about how to solve that problem and no one has a great solution yet.”
Mobile GR says they have about 400 thousand riders a year on 16 hundred e- bikes and scooters.
“A dollar to unlock and 36 cents a minute.”
