Bloomington had more than 600 scooter parking violations in last three months of 2022

The City of Bloomington documented more than 600 scooter parking violations from October to December last year. 

The scooter brand with the most documented offenses was Bird with 270, followed by Veo with 240, then Lime at 95.

The information was collected for a pilot study and presented to city council by Bloomington Public Works director Adam Wason on Wednesday. He said the most common parking violations were blocked sidewalks or ADA ramps. 

“So exactly what we don't want to be occurring" he said. "We found 479 instances where we moved scooters off of a sidewalk that was blocked or an ADA ramp.” 

The city previously signed $10,000 operating contracts with each scooter company and received a 15-cent stipend per ride. Wason said some of that money was spent to hire part-time staff to gather data and move scooters. 

Employees documented the most parking violations an Kirkwood Avenue, Walnut Street, College Avenue, and Morton Street. 

The city hasn’t signed new operating agreements with scooter companies. Wason said the city will propose next steps for agreements with the companies to city council in the next few weeks.  

Bloomington's Director of Economic and Sustainable Development Alex Crowley said parking issues get a lot of attention. But one of the primary areas they're looking at in any contract revisions with the companies is ways to improve rider safety. 

Crowley added each company deployed 400 to 600 scooters when they arrived in Bloomington. The city is looking at ways to decrease that number as a way to address issues with parking and clutter. 

The city has not impounded any scooters to date, according to Crowley, because of potential operational issues it would cause. But, it wants to retain that right. 

He said the city wanted to wait until it had collected information to understand where problems existed.