There appears to be a market for rideshare scooters in Jamestown.

A recent report to the City Council showed 771 unique riders over a 58-day period starting in September traveling some 6,000 miles. The city will receive 20% of the proceeds from each ride while Bird Bikeshare, the company providing the scooters and e-bikes, receives 80%. There were about 80 scooter rentals a day.

One of the aspects that makes a lot of sense is the use of the scooters by Jamestown Community College students. Students who don’t otherwise have access to transportation were able to use the scooters to get back and forth to appointments or for small errands.

Jamestown hasn’t seen the major issues seen when the scooters were located in the Dunkirk and Fredonia area over the past couple of years. That doesn’t mean those issues won’t appear, they just haven’t yet. Many of the complaints some people have regarding e-bikes and scooters apparently aren’t from the Bird scooters, since Jamestown police say only one incident was reported on a Bird Bikeshare scooter when a rider hit a vehicle. The scooter rider was at fault.

City Council members will decide in the spring if they want to move forward with the program. We know the possible shortcomings, but as of now there isn’t enough evidence that Jamestown residents can’t handle rideshare scooters and e-bikes. Council should move forward with the program again in the spring.