DENVER — After a couple of delays, Denver City Council plans to vote Wednesday on a contract for the city’s new sole electric scooter and bike rental company.
Veo is set to replace Bird and Lime scooters and bikes starting next month.
The company’s contract is supposed to begin May 1, only about two weeks before the contracts for Lime and Bird are set to run out.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Not so fast: Denver Transportation and Infrastructure Committee pumps the brakes on new scooter contract
Lime has pushed for a 12 to 18 month extension, saying there needs to be a longer transition period for its Access Program, which offers free rides for low-income riders.
The company said the program provides a critical option for the roughly 30,000 who signed up in Denver to get to work, school or the doctor, and that many will be left without it if the switch-over happens too quickly.
Lime Regional Head of Government Relations Zach Williams spoke with Denver7 last month. He worried about the task of Veo switching over such a large group of riders to its own Access Program in a short timeframe, during the busiest time of year for ridership.
“This new operator, who's never operated a program of this size or in Denver, is going to come into the city at that moment,” Williams said. “It's going to be dealing with a huge range of operational challenges. This is a really robust and important program. It's also a hard program to manage.”
Transportation advocate Michael Hughes with the West Corridor Transportation Management Association works with metro communities to push for alternate options like scooters.
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Hughes accuses Lime of refusing to help transfer riders to Veo's Access Program in order to create a crisis and force the city to extend Lime's contract.
“There could be a gap in service,” Hughes told Denver7 last week. “But that's only if Lime continues not to cooperate. And so they're creating the thing they say would be disastrous, by not actually helping people make the transition.”
Denver7 took that concern to Lime, which responded with the following statement:
“Supporting Lime Access riders has been and remains a priority for Lime throughout any transition.
Elevating advocacy from the community, riders, council members, and partners like Denver Streets Partnership and Servicios de la Raza, led to the recent change in the City’s latest proposal enshrining free rides for access riders going forward.
There is no simple process for transferring an equity program. Operating Lime Access requires careful handling of rider privacy, consent, and eligibility verification. While there is no easy solution to enrolling 30,000+ Access riders to a new program, we know from experience that it takes time, consistent in-person outreach and strong community engagement. We intend to work with the city and incoming operator to ensure as smooth a transition as possible while respecting rider privacy and our contractual obligations.”
Lime also points to local organizations like Denver Streets Partnership, Servicios de la Raza and the Denver Rescue Mission, expressing support for Lime's Access Program in Denver, and concern for how the city is handling the transition to a new provider.
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