Lime, a California-based company that offers shared scooters and bikes, launched in Denver on Friday -- and the city said it did so with almost no notice.
Riders use an app to unlock the scooters, and they can then be dropped off anywhere in the city.
That's prompted Denver Public Works to develop new rules to regulate businesses like Lime, which also offers bike-sharing services.
The city of Aurora launched its bike-sharing permit application process in October 2017.
A few weeks after, Lime and another bike-sharing company, Ofo, applied to launch their bicycle-sharing programs there.
Now, Aurora has 1,200 shared bikes within its city limits.
Brenden Paradies, a planner with the city of Aurora, said the last few months have been a learning curve, but constant communication is crucial.
"Just having that door open is really important, and keeping that line of communication, because we can learn a lot from them, and I think they can learn a lot from us,” he said. “Really forming this more as a public-private-partnership to make this successful not only for them, but for us and our goals too.”
Paradies said he has biweekly talks with both companies.
That's when they discuss monthly usage numbers, high-volume areas and any community concerns.
He also said educating the public about these new companies is crucial.
"I think for this program to be successful, like any new program, the outreach, the education is huge and just getting people to understand how to use this program is what does it mean and how can it benefit them," he said.
The city provides handouts, attends community meetings and even has a website on the bike-sharing companies.
Paradies said he’s attended think-tanks with other local municipal leaders to discuss bike and scooter sharing companies.
"I think every city in the United States is probably in the same boat,” he said. “I think we're all learning, we're all trying to be up to this level of how fast this industry is growing. The silver lining of it is bringing other cities and other leaders together, that we can all learn from and streamline these processes and make this program not just individual for each city but almost like a national, a stream line national program."
Aurora's rules and regulations don't allow Lime to launch its scooters within the city.
But Paradies said if they decide to renew the bike-sharing permits in October, that's something they'll consider.
"We've learned a lot along the way and, come October, if we decided to renew this permit program, there will be things we consider this time around that maybe we didn't quite know in the beginning,” he said. “I think with anything you're going to have you lessons learned and hopefully you can grow from that and I think we're going to do our best to do that."
Paradies also noted that the city has seen increased ridership each month.
