Lime squeezes into Detroit’s scooter-share market

One scooter company just wasn’t enough.

After Bird landed in Detroit just over a month ago, competitor Lime has now brought its dockless electric scooters to Detroit.

Courtesy of Lime

Looking at the app early Tuesday afternoon, we see most in downtown and Midtown, with a few in Corktown, Lafayette Park, the east Riverfront, and one all the way up in Highland Park.

The pricing is the same as Bird—$1.00 to start and $0.15 per minute. You’re not supposed to ride on the sidewalks if the sidewalks are crowded. FYI we mostly see people riding Birds on sidewalks. And you should wear a helmet—I’ve only seen one person wearing a helmet with a Bird scooter.

We’ve reached out to both Bird and Lime to see how long these programs will last, and if they’ll continue once the weather gets bad.

Unlike Bird, Lime has their own team here in Detroit to collect scooters, recharge them, and maintain them.

So far with Bird, Detroit hasn’t seen the same issues as some major cities, including piling scooters or throwing them into water. The Detroit Free Press recently reported that some scooters had their electrical packs ripped out.

To recap the summer in mobility in Detroit:

• MoGo added adaptive bike share options to its fleet, and will expand into more neighborhoods next year.
• Protected bike lanes have been added to some popular thoroughfares.
• The Regional Transit Authority won’t bring a regional transit plan to the ballot in November.
• Bird brought electric, dockless scooters to Detroit.
• DDOT and SMART will try to work together for easier transfers between regional bus systems.
• DDOT is adding more trips—and Wi-Fi—to its most popular bus routes (more on that later).
• Related: Our mayor is suing the state over the “unconstitutional” car insurance prices in the city and state.
• The mayor also said he wishes the Qline had its own dedicated lane.

Detroit might not have a cohesive regional transit system, but now it has two types of scooters for some reason.