The City of Milwaukee's nearly six-month-long scooter pilot study has ended and scooters will now be deactivated and disappearing from the streets until the next steps are determined.
The 2021 Dockless Scooter Pilot Study, conducted by the Department of Public Works, began on June 1 and ended Nov. 15.
A couple months into the study, scooters were banned from Zone 1 trip originations because too many were being ridden on the sidewalks in the area.
Spin, Lime and Bird were the scooter companies participating in the survey.
According to a statement from DPW, "The purpose of the pilot was to observe, solicit feedback on and evaluate the effectiveness of dockless scooters in Milwaukee for the purpose of determining how to best incorporate scooters into the transportation landscape moving forward."
Part of the program includes a public survey, allowing citizens to weigh in on the presence of scooters in the city.
Anyone can take the survey through Dec. 31. Here is the survey in English, Spanish and Hmong.
Scooter companies were required to deactivate their scooters at midnight on Nov. 15 and have an additional 24 hours to get them off the streets.
Statistics on ridership are online.
DPW says its next step will be, "to conduct a full evaluation of the program, which will include analyzing ridership statistics, public survey results, interviews with stakeholders and other public feedback."
It will use these to determine what comes next for scooters in Milwaukee.
A previous study was undertaken in 2019. The results of that study can be seen here.
By the time that report was released, the pandemic had arrived and DPW noted that, “The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted the way people move. Travel patterns have been disrupted by work from home arrangements and restrictions on transit ridership. It is impossible to know what residents’ and visitors’ transportation needs will be in 2021. A second pilot study will give the City the flexibility it needs to respond to changes in transportation.”
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
