Spin rolls out scooters over the weekend

Jefferson City Parks Recreation Specialist Ben Herrick is one of the first to try the Spin scooters delivered late last week. Just like Spin bicycles, through a smartphone app, the location of an available unit is shown and when you are finished, you can leave it anywhere and the GPS locator attached make locating and retrieval an easy task.
Jefferson City Parks Recreation Specialist Ben Herrick is one of the first to try the Spin scooters delivered late last week. Just like Spin bicycles, through a smartphone app, the location of an available unit is shown and when you are finished, you can leave it anywhere and the GPS locator attached make locating and retrieval an easy task.

After months of waiting, Jefferson City residents and visitors now have electric scooters to rent.

Bike-share company Skinny Labs Inc. - known as Spin - launched 75 electric scooters Dec. 1 after pushing off the launch date for several months due to high demand and manufacturing. The scooters were placed throughout the city, including in the downtown area and along the greenways.

"It is unbelievable as an adult because you feel like a kid again," said Ashley Varner, healthy communities coordinator for Capital Region Medical Center. "There's something very free and exciting because you get that rush."

Riders can download Spin's mobile app, enter their credit card information and pay as they ride. Riders pay $1 to unlock the scooters and 15 cents for every subsequent minute.

The scooters travel up to 15 miles per hour so it is important to wear a helmet, Varner said.

Drivers must ride them on the roads and greenways as they are considered vehicles.

"There's some education here," she said. "People most likely would feel more comfortable on the sidewalk than the street, but you do need to use them appropriately."

While the bicycles are housed outside year round, the scooters will be picked up around 6 p.m. every day and charged overnight at Spin's operations facility and then deployed every morning.

Jefferson City and Spin will not deploy the scooters when it is below freezing or when there is ice on the roads, Spin spokeswoman Ariella Steinhorn said.

Depending on the demand, Spin may add more electric scooters in the coming months.

"This a great example of a city recognizing that bike-share programs and scooter-share programs can co-exist and add value to commuters," Steinhorn said. "We're excited to gauge the demand for scooters in Jefferson City in the coming months.

Spin and Jefferson City launched the bike-share program in late July. Riders pay $1 for 30 minutes to use the bicycles.

Since August, the number of bike rides has been steadily decreasing, which Steinhorn and Varner attributed to the cooling weather.

The bicycles and scooters are GPS-enabled and dockless, so riders can pick up and drop them off anywhere in Jefferson City. They can locate the bicycles and scooters using the mobile app.

Those without a smartphone or credit or debit card can access the bicycles and scooters using Spin Access. With Spin Access, riders can purchase cards at The Linc, 1299 Lafayette St., for $10, scratch off the code on the card and text the code to a number to unlock the bicycles and scooters.

Under the one-year contract between Spin and the Jefferson City Parks and Recreation Commission, Jefferson City would receive 75 scooters and 75 bicycles. However, since the bicycle launch, about 10 bicycles have been decommissioned due to damage, Varner said previously, adding Jefferson City sent the decommissioned bicycles back to Spin and decided to replace them with scooters.

Jefferson City and CRMC are not liable for damages or injuries from the bike-share program, Varner said previously.

The contract was of zero cost to Jefferson City since Spin receives funding from private venture capital and operating revenue from other markets. Ford Motor Company also recently purchased Spin, but the bike-share company will remain an independent subsidiary in Ford's Smart Mobility division.