COLUMBUS, Ohio — By now we’re used to seeing people rolling from place to place on electric scooters in Ohio’s three largest cities. They’re pretty easy to locate in downtown areas to rent for some quick transportation. But that increased accessibility for riders can also make e-scooters an easy target for vandals.
Lime, one of the three prominent electric scooter rental vendors operating in the Columbus area, has about 1,700 scooters available to use on any given day. Keeping them all safe and operational is a full-time job for a team of employees like Stu Hampton.
“All the green ones are ones that gotta be moved,” Hampton, an operations lead for Lime, said while pointing to a map on an app on his phone covered with colored dots. Each dot marks where one of the brand’s scooters needs repair or repositioning.
And the team has a lot of ground to cover.
“Downtown, German Village,” he said. “East side, all the way to Whitehall and probably beyond. Far north as up here to Worthington, Upper Arlington. You may have some that still slip up into Delaware, to where they ride out there.”
For Hampton, helping his neighbors with mobility needs is important. He said it’s his calling to serve others.
“’Life be life-ing,’ and so we always want to provide things to help people get through life as they go through their life situations,” he said.
Riding around in an electric van and checking on the fleet of electric scooters is one way he helps ensure those who rely on the green machines can easily access them. He moves some to more visible spots, and keeps his eyes peeled along the way for any others on their sides or causing clutter.
“I don’t want to block the sidewalks or the ramps, but I do want the scooter to be seen and used,” Hampton said.
Each Lime scooter is tracked in real time, including every movement, who is using it, and sensors even information about whether it’s tipped over.
While most are found scattered on sidewalks, Hampton’s app Monday showed two in the water on either side of a pedestrian bridge crossing the Olentangy River.
“The handlebar is hanging out of the water right now,” he said, pointing over the railing to a scooter visible from the bridge.
Because of their position toward the middle of the waterway, several feet from the banks, he said they were likely tossed over the bridge. And it’s his job to fish them out.
“As long as it’s knee high deep, we’re going to go in there and get it,” he said, wearing waders and using a grappling hook.
Behind the warehouse space Lime uses to repair scooters, is a row of about ten older models covered with mud.
“Keep Columbus Beautiful got a lot of them out, which is really great,” said Jordan Edwards, operations manager for Lime. Members of the organization recently pulled these units out of the Scioto River, too deep for the Lime team to grab them. “We thank them for that, but yeah, just unfortunate.”
No longer usable, Edwards said each piece of the water-logged scooters will be recycled through a vendor partner.
“Plastic, metal, everything’s divvied out,” he said.
It’s a loss for both the company and the community, taking the transportation tools out of the rotation for users in need.
Edwards said geofences are set up to prevent riders from getting close to the water and Lime does fine users for various violations, but if someone’s determined to do damage, they find a way.
Hampton understands the mechanics of how the vandalism is done, but wrestles with the why.
“It’s a shame,” he said. “But that’s just the mindset of people that just really don’t care about the things that’s provided for them in the city. Just to make life more enjoyable. Guess that’s the only simple way you can say it.
But he said it’s not stopping him from continuing to uplift, lifting up scooters and the community.
“If you know when you have the heart of doing something, your heart don’t die because the people die,” Hampton said. “Your heart keeps pumping.”
Edwards said Lime is currently working with the city of Columbus to address additional concerns like improving rider education and adding geofences to make the ramps at crosswalks a no-parking zone.