Electric scooters in Hampton Roads: Necessity, novelty or nuisance?

HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) — There is no doubt the e-scooter revolution is hitting Hampton Roads, and it’s come with growing pains.

Just trying to figure out how to deal with them, from franchise fees to scooter use fees to taxes, has become complicated.

For some, the scooters are an absolute necessity. To others they’re a novelty.

But they’ve also become a huge nuisance to many. Virginia Beach’s City Council is even proposing an outright ban on e-scooters east of Arctic Avenue at the Oceanfront.

Between Virginia Beach and its neighbor in Norfolk, it’s a tale of two cities in how each has handled the e-scooter phenomenon.  

Norfolk seems much further along in an organizational relationship with Lime scooters than Virginia Beach is with Bird scooters and Lime. Norfolk has also been more successful in making the e-scooters part of the transportation equation than Virginia Beach.

10 On Your Side spoke with Lorenzo Martin, who took recently one of the 130,000 trips logged so far in Norfolk since June 24.

“I got the Lime scooter at Harbor Park parking lot because it is really expensive in Downtown Norfolk, so it is easier to grab one of these and get myself to work.” 

That is exactly the point Norfolk wants to hear. Since Norfolk cut a franchise agreement with Lime Scooters on June 24, there have been 130,000 trips logging 138,000 miles.

This is really an interesting number because it closely matches up with the philosophy to use the scooters for the “First Mile Last Mile” of a trip. The new scooters have brought in a franchise fee of $15,000 to Norfolk, added to a percentage made from of each trip taken, brings Norfolk’s take so far since June 24 to $21,000.

Virginia Beach’s take so far: $0.  

“What we know is 30% of those trips would have been taken in an automobile,” says Amy Inman, Norfolk’s Director for Department of Transit, who claims it is indisputable that Lime scooters replace cars on roads that would be competing for parking.

It’s not only Downtown Norfolk that has seen an increase in scooters. We found Donald Hamilton riding a scooter in the Huntersville section of the city. He just moved here from Charlotte.

“I like them because Norfolk seems to care about the people. This is something you can give out to someone who doesn’t want to hop in a Lyft or Uber real quick.”

Over in Virginia Beach “it is the wild west, and people are running the risk of getting hurt,” says Virginia Beach Vice Mayor Jim Wood. “I care only about safety, not about money for the city.”  

Wood was the lone vote on council against e-scooters on Atlantic Avenue.  

He says he gets lots of complaints, like one from a hotel operator. “One of their guests walked on the sidewalk and got hit by a scooter and had multiple broken bones and canceled their vacation.” He had several other stories too. 

“I love the Bird. I like riding it to work. I think it is for the purpose of riding it to work … not goofing off, says Sobrina Wolfe, who takes the scooter to and from work, and she’s tired of people, often teenagers, using Birds to mess around.

“I’m not for just screwing around. People are getting hurt, killed because they play with them and they are not toys.”

We were surprised how Lime and Bird make tens of thousands of dollars in Virginia Beach using the city right of ways to operate, and pay nothing to the city in franchise fees and fees per scooter trip like they do in Norfolk.

Why don’t the companies pay something? We asked that to Wood.

“I think we should get something from them,” Wood said. “We are working on the Franchise Agreement right now … I think it should have been done by now, I think so … I think until we have an agreement, we should not have them at all.”

“One of them we had to pick out of the sewer,” says Destiny Sowell, who is an operations specialist with Lime. She was spending the day gathering Limes that need to be recharged, and the company is acutely aware of the tense relations in Virginia Beach.

“I think it is improving relations because they’ve (Virginia) gone so long without (demanding finances from us) …. as soon as they tell us what they want us to do we will do that, because we want to be on their good side.”  

Sowell also claims 40% of Lime’s Norfolk riders are on their way to work or school.

This brings us back to Lorenzo Martin and quality of life in Norfolk. “I hated Norfolk because of the parking, and it seems every time I parked my car it would get a ticket … but this has made it a lot better. I can park in the free parking, and I can ride where I need to go … a 10 minute walk or a 2 minute ride. It’s pretty good.”

Inman was thrilled to hear Martin says that. “I was ecstatic to hear this one change we have made has provided mobility options and mobility freedom.”