Lime packing up its street scooters, hopes for spring return

Lime, the electric scooter service that rolled across the Twin Cities this year, will pull the scooters off the streets for the winter on Friday. Company officials say they hope to be back in the spring.

The arrival of Lime and Bird scooters this year drove lots of conversation and consternation in the Twin Cities after they seemed to show up almost overnight on city street corners. City leaders moved quickly to regulate the scooters.

Lime scooter in August received St. Paul's permission to start rolling out the two-wheeled standup scooters that are rentable using a smartphone app.

Bird had rolled out its scooters in St. Paul earlier in the summer, but they were quickly banned while the city worked out new regulations.

On Wednesday, Lime officials said its Twin Cities customers had logged more than 200,000 rides since the rollout.

"This initial pilot clearly demonstrated that the Twin Cities is a community where our scooters and bikes are filling a critical need," Lime general manager Eric Kocaja said in a statement. "We're eager to work with city leaders in Minneapolis and St. Paul, as well as Golden Valley, Edina and the University of Minnesota so we can return in the spring."

The company also said that by early December it will remove its bikes from streets in St. Paul, Golden Valley and Edina.

Lime scooters are currently available in more than 130 cities and 14 countries. The dockless electric scooters have sparked controversy in other places around the country, with some cities complaining about riders zipping along sidewalks, riding unsafely in traffic and leaving the scooters in places where they block foot and other traffic.