At least for the time being, people can still rent electric scooters at the University of Central Florida and International Drive.
Orange County commissioners voted 6 to 1 Tuesday to extend, by 12 months, the county’s existing contracts with two specific e-scooter vendors. Lime and Bird e-scooters are the only two e-scooter brands approved for use within two designated parts of the unincorporated county. Those designated areas are now larger, growing to include the area immediately west of UCF’s main campus as well as more of the area surrounding I-Drive.
Additionally, the maximum number of e-scooters each company may operate within an area is now 100, down from 150. It's one of several changes the county is making to its e-scooter pilot program — now entering a third year — in light of growing public safety concerns about micromobility devices.
Safety and accessibility concerns
As electric micromobility devices like e-scooters and e-bikes become increasingly popular in Central Florida, safety concerns about the devices are being flagged by tourists, business owners and other members of the public.
“There is definitely a trend, within the data, of tourists referencing issues with the devices weaving in and out,” said District 5 Commissioner Kelly Martinez Semrad, citing a data analysis she conducted with the help of artificial intelligence.
“We don't want to have a visitor go home with an injury — something that could be catastrophic, even — because we didn't have the right safety measures in place.”
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Martinez Semrad, who cast the lone opposing vote Tuesday, also said she thinks the county’s two-year pilot study has already gone on for too long. She proposed the county instead launch a new study focused on safety for pedestrians, including people who travel to I-Drive for conventions and spend time walking around the area.
Richard Hess, a hotel manager speaking on behalf of the Hilton and Hyatt hotels in the I-Drive area, told commissioners Tuesday that he’s seen several “near-misses” between e-scooters, pedestrians and cars. That’s a big concern, Hess said, for the thousands of pedestrians on sidewalks in a section of Orlando that serves as a global convention and tourism destination.
“We continue to witness riders weaving through pedestrian traffic, operating the sidewalks where space is very limited — and, in some cases, riding late at night after conventions, concerts, and entertainment events, where impairment continues to be a factor,” Hess said.
Abandoned e-scooters, left behind on private property, sidewalks and other pedestrian pathways, are another recurring concern. The county has 34 designated parking corrals near I-Drive, where users are supposed to return the e-scooters, but that doesn’t always happen.
Just on Tuesday morning, Hess said, he saw five e-scooters creating a tripping hazard outside of the hotel he manages.
New, countywide rules — and how the e-scooter areas differ
Orange County recently enacted countywide rules for micromobility devices. There are other, special rules for the county’s two designated e-scooter areas near UCF and I-Drive.
In those areas, Lime and Bird are the only types of e-scooters that may be used, based on the county’s license agreements with both vendors. (There’s no such restriction affecting other types of micromobility devices, like e-bikes.)
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Additionally, for the entirety of both designated areas, e-scooters are limited to a maximum speed limit of 10 mph. Staff said the change already took effect back in December. The 10 mph speed limit matches the one for micromobility devices traveling on sidewalks in the rest of the county. Elsewhere — like on roadways and shoulders, bike lanes and trails — the maximum speed limit is 20 mph.
Currently, the county’s geofencing — a digital boundary around a specific area — stops e-scooters from being used there, including by the convention center and, between the hours of 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., near bars. Now that the contract extensions have been approved, staff plan to collect data on areas where geofencing could potentially be expanded.
Additionally, over the next three months, staff plan to collect data on things like how parking corrals are being used and whether e-scooters are being used more in the now-expanded areas. Already, the parameters of the county’s ongoing pilot program have changed “significantly” based on reported safety concerns, Public Works Project Manager Jerald Marks said Tuesday.
Next steps
Prior to voting Tuesday, some commissioners expressed concern about extending the e-scooter contracts. But ultimately, they voted to approve the extensions, based on input from staff and the county attorney’s office.
The contracts had been set to expire at the end of this month, and letting them expire would’ve opened the door to allowing all kinds of e-scooters to operate without additional oversight from the county, staff said.
“Because we set up the [micromobility] ordinance, and because we have license agreements, we have been able to restrict the number of devices, the speed of the devices,” Public Works Deputy Director Brett Blackadar said. “If we do not have license agreements, based on state law, it could get back to the situation where we have unregulated [e-scooter] devices on I-Drive.”
The county also receives a profit from the e-scooter vendors, Blackadar said.
The county could still choose to terminate its e-scooter contracts early, before they’re set to expire in 12 months. As of now, commissioners expect staff to report fresh data back in February.
