BOISE, Idaho — You know what we haven't seen in a long time?
Besides our teachers, our bosses, and for some, anything outside our own front yard.
Electric scooters.
They were pulled from the streets about the same time we all were.
Right now, Bird and Lime have contracts in Boise, and have since 2018.
Both companies have 250 scooters that are sitting in a warehouse somewhere waiting for the time they will be redeployed.
Lime scooters has already done so in about a dozen cities across the country.
As for when that might happen here, we asked Jonathan Hopkins, the Director of Strategic Development and Government Affairs for Lime.
“We haven't set a specific date at this time for when we'd bring scooters back to Boise, most likely after the stay-at-home order is lifted," Hopkins said.
"How do you protect the rider?" asked KTVB.
"We have worked really closely with CDC guidance and CDC experts on this of what our methodology and approach to keeping scooters clean and keeping the public clean," Hopkins said. "We've been taking the same approach to public transit agencies have. Every time the scooters come through the warehouse they're thoroughly disinfected. But you know the other piece about this is just keeping riders informed about their personal responsibility of what they should do. Anytime anybody is going out in public and touching anything, they should wash their hands before they touch their face. But we're following the best practices in play throughout the entire transportation industry, to keep the vehicles as clean as possible."
Hopkins said most of their scooters sit for longer than five minutes between riders. Not that that matters as much, he says, since air transmission is more likely than surface transmission of COVID-19.
They are also keeping an eye on how things are going in Salt Lake City to see how their services are being used there, and it will be about determining when enough people will need or use them in Boise.
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