If you’ve ever wanted to zip around downtown Jacksonville on an electric scooter, your dream has come true as of today.
The city officially launched its Dockless Mobility Program with the introduction of rentable electric scooters that can travel throughout the Dockless Mobility Zone which includes central business district, the sports and entertainment district, the Church and Cathedral districts, and a small portion of LaVilla directly surrounding the new Jacksonville Regional Transportation Center. The new scooters can be rented from, and dropped off at, 35 geofenced corral locations placed throughout the program’s boundary area stretching from JRTC to TIAA Bank Field. The corrals were placed to be out of the path of pedestrians and vehicles, and all scooters must be parked within a corral to prevent the obstruction of those paths. Other notable corral locations include James Weldon Johnson Park, the Duval County Courthouse, the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts, Met Park, and VyStar Veterans Arena.
The new scooters, which travel at a maximum speed of around 15 miles-per-hour, can be rented using smartphone apps from each vendor; the apps also include information about safety, functionality, and geofencing boundaries. Vendors include Blue Duck, Helbiz, LINK, and SPIN – meeting the maximum of four vendors allowed by the city’s one-year Dockless Mobility Pilot Program.
The pilot program was approved by city council last year and can be made permanent at the end of its one-year term if it’s deemed to be “in the best interests of the City.” The program also provides for the introduction of rentable bicycles and e-bikes; it’s unclear if or when those elements will be introduced.
More information about the new Dockless Mobility Program, including a map of the program’s boundaries and corral locations as well as direct links to each vendor’s website, check out its dedicated page on the Downtown Investment Authority website.
