MILWAUKEE — With September here and summer rolling away, some may think it's a weird time for the City of Milwaukee to start its third e-scooter study. But this study will last all the way through the end of 2023 — giving Milwaukee a full 15 months to see if the scooters can be permanent. 

What You Need To Know

  • Milwaukee is undergoing a third pilot program for dockless scooters

  • Previous studies were performed in 2019 and 2021

  • Lime, Spin and Veo scooters will be in the city until December 31, 2023

Mayor Cavalier Johnson said, in the previous two studies, scooters have been a big part of transportation in Milwaukee. 

“The way we get around our city, it matters," Johnson said Friday. "Experiencing the city on human scale transportation like scooters can make you feel more connected to the people and the places that are around you when you’re traveling on the ground like that.”

In 2021, there were more than 480,000 total rides on scooters in the City of Milwaukee. Roughly 2,500 people a day rode a scooter; a survey showed 70% of people wanted scooters to become a permanent fixture in the city. 

“Absolutely," Johnson added. "It’s my hope that we have a permanent scooter program here in Milwaukee after this pilot concludes next year.”

One of the biggest complaints during last year’s pilot program was that too many people were riding scooters on the sidewalks. 

Kate Riordan, the senior transportation planner with the Department of Public Works, said all three companies involved in this year’s study — Lime, Spin and Veo — have technology to deter that. 

“We have specified some streets where they are required to detect and stop sidewalk riding on those sidewalks," Riordan said. "We’re going to evaluate that, see how that goes, and add more streets as we go about the pilot.”

Last August, the city completely suspended scooter rides in the Zone 1 downtown area, because of sidewalk riding. 

That won’t happen in this study. 

“It really impacted ridership not only in that zone, but throughout the city," Riordan said. "We want to make sure we have a successful scooter program that allows everybody to be able to use it.”

The scooters are just starting to show up in the city, but there will be 1,800 scooters in Milwaukee for this pilot study — 600 from each company. 

Scooters will be available to ride until the end of the study, which is December 31, 2023.