Lime scooters say they have the green light in St. Paul
Electric scooters have returned to St. Paul.
The Lime scooter company said it received the city's permission to start rolling out its two-wheeled standup scooters that are rentable using a smartphone app.
"We're going to have about 150 scooters on the streets, in the neighborhoods, downtown, giving more accessible and affordable and fun transportation options to the residents here," said Eric Kocaja, general manager for Lime in the Twin Cities.
Another company, Bird, rolled out scooters in the city earlier this summer, but they were quickly banned while the city worked out new regulations for the dockless scooters. Those regulations are in place now.
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Lime scooters started to appear on sidewalks Tuesday morning and the company would like to put out more.
"It is up to the city to see how much ridership we have," said Kocaja. "There is definitely plenty of demand, and it it is up to the cities to raise the caps."
Lime also has dockless bikes for rent with smartphone apps in Edina and Golden Valley.
Company officials hope to keep their bike operations going year round in the Twin Cities but say they're going to pull the scooters off the streets once it starts snowing.