In July 2021, the City of Pittsburgh launched a two-year Shared E-Scooter pilot as part of the MovePGH program. Initiated through an RFP by the city, MovePGH and the scooter pilot brought new sustainable mobility services to Pittsburgh residents and visitors at no cost to the city. Because low-speed electric scooters were not recognized in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania at the time, temporary state authorization was granted in 2021. This authorization expired in July 2023, and the shared e-scooter program service was abruptly halted, seriously impacting many of those who relied on the service. For those of us who represent Pittsburgh’s Northside neighborhoods, these neighborhoods lost the only micro-mobility option that has ever come into our predominantly Black, low-income, and topographically difficult-to-access neighborhoods that are already disappointingly underserved by our public transit options. Additionally, the abrupt halt cost 40 people their jobs. 
  
The impacts of the e-scooter program were measurably positive in multiple respects, all of which were well-documented in the E-Scooter Pilot Report submitted to the Transportation Committee of the Pennsylvania Senate in May 2023. Some key highlights include:  
 

• During the two-year pilot, more than 212,000 people signed up to use the service in Pittsburgh, with the system seeing an average of 13,000 unique riders.  

• In total more than one million trips were taken covering over 1.5 million miles. Survey data collected in Pittsburgh shows that 33% of these scooter trips were replacing a car trip, equating to 330,000 car trips.  

• E-scooters address real transportation needs, with nearly half of users reporting using the scooters for commuting. 

• The E-scooter program offered economic benefit to Pittsburgh with 535 new jobs (Full Time Equivalent) being created at an average hourly wage of $19.62, which contributed $1.68 million in wages to the Pittsburgh economy. Additionally, 42% of riders reported using the e-scooters for shopping, dining out, or essential errands.  

• While the program did receive complaints, they remained relatively low at a rate of 4 per 1000 trips - and more importantly - trended downward over time.   

• The e-scooter service provided discounted rates for low-income users as well as automatically applied discounts to the 70,000 trips (7.3% of the program’s total) originating in historically underserved parts of the city. 

Based on the results of the pilot program and a continued need to provide equitable and low-carbon transportation options for city residents, I will be reintroducing legislation to allow municipalities to voluntarily authorize shared e-scooter programs if they so choose. This legislation will once again build on the success of the current program while introducing new mechanisms allowing for easier reporting of violations, as well as stronger penalties for non-compliance against both riders and operators. This legislation has been developed with significant input from stakeholders at every level to address concerns raised and to make the experience of operating e-scooters better for users, residents, and governments alike. 
  
Please join me in co-sponsoring this legislation to bring Pennsylvania in line with so many other states who already provide this micro-mobility option widely. 

 

This legislation was previously introduced as HB 2218 in the 2023-2024 session with the following co-sponsors: Pisciottano, Burgos, Hohenstein, Kinsey, Cepeda-Freytiz, Mayes, Hill-Evans, Kenyatta, and Green.