E-scooters are returning to Albuquerque

ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Spin Scooters delivered 50 freshly charged scooters to the UNM area on Friday. It's their first major delivery in the Duke City.

This isn't the first time we've seen e-scooters in Albuquerque. They showed up briefly just before the pandemic and caused a handful of problems in the short months they were here.

Five years later, it seems the novelty has calmed down a bit, and New Mexicans are ready for a new way to get around the city.

“It’s one of my favorite things to do,” said Anthony Cosentino, a UNM student.

UNM students know that e-scooters can be a huge time saver.

“We just want to eat lunch at Panera from this building. And I mean it took us about 20 minutes to get there and back. Now I can just race and I’m really happy to be able to save this time,” said Cosentino.

But UNM students remember the last time e-scooters arrived in Albuquerque, when they disappeared or were damaged. They also nearly sent a woman to jail after police caught her drunkenly walking the wrong way down Second Street.

“A lot of people are definitely going over the speed limit with this, and it's not entirely clear whether they should be riding in bike lanes or on the street or where passengers are walking,” said Leoni Keiler, another UNM student.

It appears Albuquerque city leaders and the folks at San Francisco-based Spin Scooters thought about all of this before attempting the second round.

“We want micromobility to last in Albuquerque, and we’ll do that by figuring out what didn’t work in the past and how we can do it better now,” said Kylee Floodman, government partnerships manager at Spin Scooters.

City councilors lowered fees for scooter-sharing companies in early August, but representatives from Spin Scooters say better communication is the big difference.

“There are clearer, defined rules about where you can and can’t park. And then on the mobility side, directly on the operator side, making those rules and regulations very clear in our app and in our tutorials for our drivers,” Floodman said.

All city bicycle laws apply to e-scooters. This means using bike lanes when available, obeying traffic lights and signs, making space on sidewalks for pedestrians, and not blocking paths when parking scooters.

Helmets are only required for children and teenagers, but adults are strongly recommended.

“I think you'll find that the experience is very different now compared to a few years ago,” Floodman said.

Currently, Spin Scooter riding is only available in certain areas, and company officials confirmed that does not include the UNM or CNM campuses.

“It's going to start in a kind of downtown area, closer to the university district, where you're just going to see higher density. And then as we see feedback from Albuquerque and residents, we will begin to expand, perhaps adding more vehicles and more locations,” Floodman said.

But only time will tell if these scooters actually stick around.

“Let’s give it maybe six months, three months and hopefully yes,” said Roberto Angulo, a UNM student.

Crews delivered 50 scooters to the UNM area on Friday. People can find and activate them through the Spin Scooter app.

Company officials confirmed that the scooters will automatically slow down if you try to ride outside certain areas.

There are plans to expand to other parts of Albuquerque in the future.