A third electric scooter company is coming to Bloomington.
The Parks Board approved an interim operating agreement with Spin this week. The agreement is the same one the city of Bloomington has in place with Bird and Lime.
It stipulates the company must pay a $10,000 annual fee to the city, and a 10-cent per ride fee. It also outlines parking and usage requirements.
The city didn’t draft the interim agreement until after Bird and Lime brought hundreds of scooters to town last year, so Spin is the first company to go through the approval process from the beginning.
Director of Economic and Sustainable Development for the city Alex Crowley says the Ford-owned company isn’t sure when it will launch in Bloomington, or how many scooters it will bring.
"They have a policy that they first go through the approval process and engage with the city, and then once they’ve gone through that they start looking into the operational side of things and implementation steps," Crowley says.
The Board of Public Works now has to approve the agreement before Spin can start doing business in Bloomington.
The city council will consider drafting permanent scooter regulations next month. Crowley says the proposed rules will give the Board of Public Works flexibility to make changes in the future.
If adopted, they would replace the interim operating agreement.
Crowley says the proposed rules will give the Board of Public Works flexibility to make changes.
"So, for example, if capping the total number of scooters is something that we want to do, we wouldn’t hard code that into the ordinance," he says.
Crowley says the number of scooters in town is among the concerns he's heard from residents.
