Until August, electric scooters rented via smartphone app had been a popular feature in downtown Mobile. The were provided by Bolt Mobility (and before that by Bolt precursor Gotcha), but Bolt withdrew from Mobile earlier this summer when investments in the company fell short of expectations.
A company called EZRide attempted to fill the gap in recent days, but the city said early Wednesday that it did not have any information about EZRide and that the company did not have a franchise agreement to operate in city rights of way.
The initial city announcement said that police would impound the EZRide scooters, and that “We are currently working to finalize a franchise agreement with another company to bring scooters back to downtown Mobile.”
Later in the day a second city announcement said that EZRide’s owner had been unaware a franchise agreement was required and was cooperating to collect the scooters. According to the update, EZRide would not be charged an impound fee for scooters collected by police.”
A request for comment from EZRide was pending as this story was published.
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