Lyft Electric Scooters Available in San Jose June 2019

San Jose’s leaders recently granted ride-sharing giant Lyft permission to send in 900 e-scooters. This makes Lyft the first company that has legal permission to operate rentable e-scooters in San Jose.

Anyone in San Jose can now easily find these e-scooters by downloading the Lyft app onto their phone. These new devices are located throughout the city, but most are in the busy downtown district.

Although e-scooter companies Lime and Bird have been operating in San Jose since the start of 2018, they have yet to receive formal permits from the city. Executives from both these companies say they are working on their permit applications.

According to local officials, Lyft paid $2,500 plus $124 per device for this one year contract. San Jose requires all e-scooter permit holders to share relevant traffic data with lawmakers, police, and the DOT.

Customers will find contact information clearly listed on Lyft’s e-scooters in case they want to ask a question or express a safety complaint. City leaders expect Lyft and other e-scooter operators to respond to all safety hazards within two hours.

Another issue San Jose wants rideshare companies to address is customers riding e-scooters on sidewalks. Engineers at different e-scooter manufacturers are already working on motion-sensing technology that will automatically shut off e-scooters in unsafe areas. There’s no word yet when this technology will be perfected.

Like many other American cities, San Jose is also working with the Vision Zero project to reduce the number of traffic fatalities over the next few years. People can follow the city’s safety progress by clicking on this URL.