WASHINGTON — LimeBike, one of five companies taking part in the District’s seven-month dockless bike demonstration project, is adding electric scooters to its dockless fleet in D.C.
It follows LimeBike’s launch of electric scooters in San Diego in February. The scooters, called Lime-S, are available throughout the District.
LimeBike is the second company to experiment with dockless electric scooters in the District.
Last month, a handful of electric scooters from a company called Waybots hit D.C. streets, though Waybots called it a “soft launch” and didn’t say when it would be officially launching.
LimeBike said its 250-watt motor scooters have a 37-mile maximum range. They cost $1 to unlock and 15-cents per minute to ride.
Waybot’s electric scooters in D.C. are currently priced at $1 plus 15-cents per minute and have a 20-mile range.
The District’s demonstration project is designed to determine if dockless bike sharing will be allowed to remain in D.C. and how those business would be required to operate. The individual private companies operating and maintaining the dockless bikes are not part of Capital Bikeshare.
D.C. generally favors dockless bike sharing so far, District Department of Transportation told WTOP, even though dozens of bikes have been stolen and there are complaints about the bikes being left in the middle of sidewalks or other public spaces.
DDOT is soliciting public input via email on the dockless bike-share experiment.
