Scooters will remain on the streets (and, let's be honest, the sidewalks) in Nashville. But there will be fewer of them.
The Metro Council on Tuesday night gave unanimous, final approval to a compromise that stops short of banning scooters altogether — as Mayor David Briley and others have called for — and the status quo. The legislation institutes stricter new rules for the devices, caps the number scooter companies allowed to operate in Nashville at three and reduces the size of their scooter fleets.
The bill also calls for a competitive bidding process through which the three scooter companies will be selected.
Although it will shrink their presence in the city, the outcome is a victory for scooter operators like Uber, Lyft, Byrd and Lime who were rallying their users to lobby the council against a ban. The mayor proposed at least temporarily banning the scooters last month in the wake of complaints about blocked sidewalks, rising reports of injuries and one fatal accident.
