Electric scooter rentals are coming to the Guadalajara suburb of Zapopan after the municipality approved a pilot project to begin testing their use on December 2.

Scooter companies Bird, Frog, Grin and Movo will each place 250 scooters on Zapopan streets.

They will charge 10-15 pesos (US $0.50-0.75) to unlock the scooters with an app and 2-3 pesos (US $0.10-0.15) per minute to use them.

The operators will be required to carry insurance and police users to ensure they follow traffic regulations.

The companies are not allowed to place advertising beyond their own branding on the scooters, and any company that places more than 250 scooters on the streets will be pulled from the project.

For their part, users of the scooters will have to comply with city regulations. They will have to ride in bike lanes or the right lane of traffic, and are not allowed to ride on sidewalks.

They must respect all traffic signals, rights of way and ride with, not against, traffic. They will also be obliged to park them in special scooter parking zones or vehicle spaces, and not obstruct sidewalk traffic.

Guadalajara is also expected to join the initiative to provide the alternative form of transportation.

Source: Milenio (sp)