DENVER — Denver City leaders say riders of Veo scooters and e-bikes are riding on sidewalks far too often. Starting Nov. 1, Denver will begin enforcement against Veo for that riding behavior.
With the exception of the very beginning or the very end of a trip, riders are supposed to stay completely off the sidewalk.
"Our sidewalks are never built for scooters or for anything traveling at 15 miles an hour," said Denver City council member Chris Hinds.
Earlier this year, Veo scooters replaced the Lime and Bird options that were in Denver previously.
In order to secure the three year contract, Veo had to comply with Denver's sidewalk rules to keep riders off.
"Veo did say they had the technology, and actually, that's part of the law. Is that for [Veo] to participate with scooters in Denver, they have to have the technology," said Hinds.
Part of the law also included increased reporting.
"the first report that we got from Veo, there were more than 338,000 sidewalk riding detections in two months, and you know, I have eyes. I think that is in line with what I see every day, and and my constituents in the center city see the same thing too," said Hinds.
Starting November 1, Denver will start penalizing Veo for violations.
"Fines, obviously, is one way for us to hold our vendor accountable. Another is to keep them from increasing the fleet of vehicles. Another is to tell them they have to reduce their fleet of vehicles," Hinds said. Residents can also report any issues to 311 and the City will look into it.
Veo rider Daniel Ortega told Denver7 he rides on the streets with drivers, but would be hesitant to lose sidewalks completely as an option.
"If they add more bike lanes, then then yeah, people would follow the rules more because cars would know the bike lanes there. When there's not a bike lane, you got to share the road with the driver, you tend to get hit," he said.
Denver7 reached out to Veo, their director of communications said the 338,000 detections cited by the city were not all confirmed violation. That total number also included permitted, limited sidewalk riding at the beginning or end of trips.
The company also reported detected sidewalk riding dropped 22% between May and June and has been declining each month since. That's despite reported record ridership.
Veo said they look forward to continuing to work to make sure Denver's laws are followed.
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