Add Chicago to the growing the list of cities allowing residents and visitors alike to zip around town on a mode of transportation most suitable for 5-year olds.
Of course, I’m referring to those electric scooters, parked randomly on street corners, sidewalks and, in some cases, residents’ front lawns. If scooters could talk, they would undoubtedly say, “Admit it, you want to ride me. Go ahead. I dare you.”
I had seen scooters in other cities, usually out of the corner of my eye seconds before I leapt out of the way to avoid them. In Washington, D.C., a gaggle of scooters nearly ran me over outside the White House. My guess is the occupants chose our nation’s capital to demonstrate how scooters are improving the environment by reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Conversely, they are harming the environment by adding to debris on public thoroughfares, mostly in the form of injured bodies.
“I walked out of my hotel room in Jamaica, and the doorman said, ‘Cab, mon?’” said Clearwater, Fla., resident and stand-up comedian Pat Duax, 64, recalling his first scooter encounter.
Instead, Duax opted for a scooter. “The hotel had a 60-degree incline driveway,” he said. “I revved up the scooter to get up the hill and catapulted into the bushes. I heard the doorman say, ‘Should have taken a cab, mon.’”
After hearing Duax’s cautionary tale, I threw some protective headgear into my car, downloaded the mobile app from Lime, one of 10 companies operating scooters as part of Chicago’s pilot scooter program, and began searching for one.
The Lime app doesn’t tell you exactly where a scooter is; rather, it tells you approximately where one is. A few U-turns were involved before I located one, parked on an unfamiliar stretch of Cermak Road in the city’s Pilsen neighborhood. Chicago officials have wisely chosen less-populated city sections to test the scooter program. Visitors to Wrigley Field, Navy Pier and Millennium Park are safe. For now, anyway.
Riding a Lime scooter begins by scanning the vehicle’s QR code on a mobile phone. Continuing my uninterrupted streak of having never successfully scanned a QR code, I eventually opted for the alternative, typing in the scooter’s serial number. It cost me $1 and 40 percent iPhone battery life before the scooter’s LED screen roared to life, signaling it was unlocked and ready to ride. A few pumps of the throttle, and I was off to … where, exactly?
I rode up and down residential streets, eliciting a few horn honks and one cry of, “Hey, where did you get that thing?” With my balance and confidence improving, I flagged down a complete stranger, handed him my iPhone and requested he take a photo of me. Scooter riders: Don’t even think about taking a selfie while riding a scooter. No, I’m serious; don’t even THINK about it.
Lime scooters are limited to 15 miles an hour, a speed I reached when I noticed another rider zipping through the neighborhood, far more deftly than I. Giving chase in hopes of an interview, I eventually caught up with Sinai Martinez, 18, an incoming freshman at Harold Washington College. Martinez, a frequent rider, admitted to spending a few dollars per week on short trips between his home and neighborhood stores. Operating a Lime scooter costs 15 cents per minute, plus the $1 unlocking fee.
“Potholes and speed bumps,” replied Martinez when I asked about scooter hazards. Road blemishes aside, he enthusiastically endorsed his newly discovered mode of transportation.
After 30 minutes, I was ready to abandon the scooter, a far easier move than unlocking one. Just park it wherever, lock it from your phone and snap a photo of its location, so the next rider can, hopefully, find it. Pilsen riders, there’s one waiting near Dvorak Park. Well, that’s where I left it. Who knows where it is now?
My experience cost me $5.50, far cheaper than taking a cab, mon. Chicago officials plan to examine ridership in mid-October before determining if scooters will be a permanent fixture in the city.
By that time, I will most likely be learning to ride a longboard. And, hopefully, figuring out how to scan a QR code.
