Starting this summer, Wichitans may be able to zip around downtown and WSU on rented electric scooters.
City officials hope to use the time before then to craft regulations to prevent issues experienced in other cities.
City transit staff are working with companies interested in placing electric scooters around the city, where people could rent one through a phone app, similar to Bike Share ICT. Officials say the locations will primarily target downtown and the Wichita State University campus. “I think there’s a lot of excitement about the potential that they could bring downtown,” said Wichita City Council member Brandon Johnson.
Johnson joined council member Becky Tuttle and Wichita Transit director Mike Tann at a demonstration Wednesday afternoon. Nathan Huber, director of mobility partnerships at Gotcha, a ride-share company, provided a demonstration scooter for people to test ride.
“Scooters are kind of taking over,” Huber said. “It started with pedal bikes, and it’s moving toward scooters. As Michael (Tann) can attest to, the buzz on scooters is out of this world.”
(Read more: Local News |)