AUSTIN, Texas — With spring festival season around the corner, people are gearing up to visit Austin.
For some, more visitors means an increase in ridership on micro-mobility devices like electric scooters. But concerns are growing for disability rights advocates, who told KVUE they worry about improper parking affecting walkways.
Since 2024, about 19,000 warnings for improper parking were issued in Austin, according to electric scooter company, Lime. Brian East, a Senior Attorney at Disability Rights Texas, said it’s a problem he has seen for years.
“They’re trying to use a workaround, maybe they’re having to go over a portion of a curb, and that can get people out of a wheelchair,” said East. “I’ve heard of that, but also just heard of people who have to backtrack, you know, sometimes quite a distance.”
Rosalba Calleros, Parent and Executive Director for Texas Parent to Parent, said this has made her think twice about trips out with her son, who is bound to a wheelchair.
“We try to avoid places with narrow streets because we know that we can find a scooter or any other object in the middle of the street,” Calleros said. “Sometimes we have to, we have to plan ahead and know that if I need to go from point A to point B, I need to avoid certain streets that are going to be difficult to maneuver with him.”
To ensure riders are following city standards, Lime officials told KVUE that it’s launched AI technology that requires riders to take a photo of where the scooter is left. They said they have also increased their “foot patrol” team, who are focused on parking compliance, rebalancing and street tidiness.
“We also, have worked with the city to do, is complete 311 integration. So when someone calls 311 or reports it to us directly that a scooter is out of place, we respond within two hours,” said Jacob Tugendrajch, Senior Communications Manager at Lime. “And if it’s an ADA request or a high priority area for users with disabilities, we’ll try to get that done in under one hour.”
At a recent meeting of the Mayor’s Committee for People with Disabilities, member Jennifer Powell said people are simply not following the rules.
“We don’t seem to have a functioning society that can use a borrowist scooter system, so I don’t even know if your product should be available in this marketplace,” Powell said.
In a statement, Powell added, “While I appreciate the technological solutions being implemented by scooter companies to try to recover their property, I’m still left with a lot of questions. I encourage community members with disabilities harmed by scooter misuse to reach out to the Mayor’s Committee.”
Parents like Calleros said while the scooters are in Austin, she encourages riders to be more mindful.
Advocates and Lime officials remind the community that if you see a scooter in a walkway, reposition it or report it to Austin 311.