HARTFORD, Conn. — A brand new fleet of electric scooters has arrived in Hartford. The LINK e-scooters by Superpedestrian launched in the city on Earth Day.
"Hartford residents have one more convenient, green, sustainable, and fun option to get around the city," said Mayor Luke Bronin.
The scooters cost one dollar to unlock, and 36 cents per minute. The company says its goal is to make them as accessible as possible for everyone.
"Our link-up program provides a 70 percent discount for anyone that is on any form of public assistance that includes Husky Health or the SNAP assistance program from the federal government," said Paul Mondesire, head of Policy and Community Engagement at Superpedestrian.
In a city where not everyone has reliable transportation, officials said it was important to find a solution, and the scooters might be one.
"We still have transit deserts unfortunately in the city of Hartford where it's not very easy to use public transit," said Lyle Wray, executive director of the Capitol Region Council of Governments."The last-mile problem. You get off the bus, you get off the train, and you're not quite to your destination and the scooters really help fill that," said Sandy Fry, bicycle and pedestrian coordinator for the City of Hartford.
The scooters will be starting off in downtown Hartford but will expand to the rest of the city in the coming weeks. Those who already had a chance to try them out, said they are excited." Adventurous. It's different. I don't have to do no exercise," said Christopher Yarmolovich.
"It was pretty smooth and it goes pretty fast and you can slow down it's not like you're jerking or anything like that so it's pretty cool," said Nija Saunders.
When it comes to safety and security riders are expected to follow the rules, could face fines if they don't.
"Ride with the flow of traffic, that means stopping at stop signs, that means stopping at stoplights," said Mondesire. The scooters themselves are pretty smart on their own too."
"Geofencing also allows you to put in place slow zones so the scooters will automatically slow down to a slower pace in certain places," said Mayor Bronin.
Superpedestrian will be out on Burr Mall from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, offering safety training, demonstrations, and giving away free helmets.
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