ROANOKE, Va. – In a few months, you will be able to ride around the city on a rented electric scooter.
You'll be able to locate the scooters through the Lime app. The California-based company is teaming up with Roanoke for this program. You'll use your smartphone to find one, unlock it and go.
When you are done using the scooter, you can just leave it whereever you are. since it's also a dock-free device. But the city has some rules in place. You can't use the scooters on sidewalks, parks or the greenways.
The General Assembly approved a bill allowing localities to regulate e-scooters. The planning department is looking at how this may supplement transit over time.
"It's working well in other cities. It remains to be seen in five years down the road if people are going to be using these things or something else is going to come along to take its place. So we're kind of taking a wait-and-see approach to a value the permanency of this," said Chris Chittum.
You must be 18 years and older to use scooters. They'll start showing up this spring or early summer.