COLUMBIA, Md. — Starting today, you can rent an e-scooter to zip around Columbia.
Howard County is piloting an e-scooter program for downtown Columbia and the neighborhoods around it.
Up to 200 SPIN scooters, as well as parking corrals, are now available. They can be picked up at The Howard Hughes Corporation in downtown Columbia, Columbia Association in the Village of Wilde Lake, and the county right-of-way in the Oakland Mills Village Center, as well as other major destinations, according to a press release.
Greg Fitchitt, President of Howard Hughes, said in a statement:
The Howard Hughes Corp. supports efforts to enhance the convenience of living in Downtown Columbia and of increasing access to and from this center of culture and commerce. E-scooters have been popular elsewhere, and I hope they will be popular here.
More information is available here.
Howard County did have a bikeshare program that recently ended. The county noted that "bikeshare use has declined significantly since the onset of the pandemic. The program recorded 1242 rides in 2020 after a 5-month closure, compared to a peak of 5468 rides in 2019."
Baltimore City has had e-scooters since 2018, and Annapolis is launching them this summer.
Baltimore's Department of Transportation said:
Currently Lime, LINK by Superpedestrian, and Spin operate dockless vehicles in Baltimore City with permits active until June 30, 2022... In 2022, we’ve averaged 2700 vehicles available for rent each day, of which 2500 are e-scooters and 200 are e-bikes. The program averages 120,000 trips taken per month.
