It's kind of hard to believe that at this time last year, there weren't any dockless e-scooters on Austin streets.
Now, they're literally piling up on street corners downtown and several miles beyond in, seemingly, all directions. Officially, the city counts 1,000 Bird scooters (with 3,500 supplemental that can be added to fill demand), 1,000 JUMP scooters, 500 Lime scooters (with 4,500 supplemental), 500 Lyft scooters (with 1,000 supplemental) and 20 GOAT scooters.
But are we riding them that much? It's difficult to say from the outside. But Lime has selected a few choice stats that give us a glimpse into ridership in Austin -- and several other cities.
In its new year-end report, Lime, which first put scooters in Austin on April 16, says it has served 275,000 riders. The California-based company said of riders surveyed in Austin, 40 percent said they used the scooter in place of a car, taxi or rideshare on their most recent trip. Lime said 42 percent of local riders say they rode a scooter to or from a dining or entertainment establishment on their most recent trip. And 38 percent reported their last trip was to go to or from work or school.
"Viewed through a small business lens, Austin’s robust ridership is particularly encouraging," Lime said in its report. "More than two in five people report using Lime to travel to or from dining or entertainment venues during their most recent trip."
Love them, hate them or indifferent, scooters have been one of the most visible and disruptive forms of technology to hit the streets in recent memory -- and it's all happened in the course of a year or less for most cities.
Lime counts 26 million rides across its global markets. And it says, on a whole, its survey shows 32 percent of riders scooted to a place to eat or be entertained on their most recent ride and and 40 percent their most recent trip was to or from work or school.
The report does not cover the controversial sides of dockless e-scooters. For months, Austin hospitals have been reporting a steady beat of emergency room visits from people injured in scooter wrecks. Some of these wrecks have led to life-threatening injuries.
Lime's new figures also don't give us any insight into how many of these scooters are lost, stolen, destroyed or otherwise discarded or impounded.
In a November update to Austin City Council members, the city said its looking into new parking boxes for the scooters to be placed in to reduce the number of scooters blocking sidewalks.
The city also presented some data of its own. That showed the majority of trips happen near downtown, often going from east to west along 2nd, 3rd and 6th Streets.
