Bye bye Bird scooters.
And bye to Lime scooters, Spin scooters and Lyft’s CoGo bikes.
Columbus’ contract with Lyft to operate the CoGo Bike Share program is expiring and the city will instead contract next year with VeoRide to provide a variety of bikes and electric scooters for rent. At the same time, Columbus will allow annual permits to expire without renewal for all three electric scooter rental companies currently operating in Columbus: Bird, Lime and Spin.
The city is targeting mid- to late March for the launch of the new Veo bike and e-scooter program. New options bikes with more cargo capacity and sit-down e-scooters will be rolled out later.
Columbus City Council voted Monday to allow the city’s Department of Public Service to enter into a contract with Veo and accept payments. Unlike Lyft, which costs the city a little over $1 million annually to run CoGo, Veo will share some revenue with Columbus for each ride.
In more biking news, the City Council on Monday adopted the Bike Plus Plan, which outlines goals to improve biking and other mobility infrastructure. The plan sets a goal for the city to build 20 miles of new bike lanes by 2029 and eventually, nearly 500 miles.
Councilmember Lourdes Barroso de Padilla, chair of the Public Service & Transportation Committee, said the bike-related ordinances passed Monday will help move Columbus away from being a car-centric city and toward becoming a people-centric city.
Justin Goodwin, Columbus’ mobility and parking services administrator, said the details of the Veo contract are still being finalized. But he said the city expects to receive six figures from Veo rides annually, which the city will reinvest into infrastructure for the program like more device parking.
He said Veo also brings technology to help prevent the problem of scooters blocking sidewalks or handicap curb ramps. The devices can recognize surrounding conditions and the Veo app tells users whether they should park there.
The Lyft contract is scheduled to expire at the end of this year, but the Council authorized the extension of Lyft’s contract through March 31 to allow for a transition. Columbus and some suburban partners put out a request for proposals for the CoGo contract and Lyft did not bid, Goodwin said.
Those suburban partners include Upper Arlington, Bexley and Grandview Heights, which already have CoGo bikes, but also Dublin, which is interested in CoGo expanding there, Goodwin said.
Goodwin said proposal evaluators considered how any contractor would keep scooters from blocking sidewalks and curb ramps and the Veo technology stood out.
“It’s definitely a pain point we’ve been experiencing. It’s the same challenge every city is experiencing,” Goodwin said.
And by bringing the scooters under the CoGo contract, there will be better city oversight than the current permit system, Barroso de Padilla said.
Rentable e-scooters block a High Street sidewalk in the area of Ohio State University in March.
jlaird@dispatch.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus getting new Veo bike, scooter rental program in 2025