Republican Council Member Kristy Marmorato called on Mayor Eric Adams to terminate the shared e-scooter program in her Bronx district, arguing that the bikes are often left abandoned all over neighborhood streets and that many of the riders are dangerous and underage.
Marmorato, who represents District 13 in the Northeast Bronx, wrote a letter to the mayor—which she posted on social media—claiming that the scooters pose a danger to her constituents and negatively impact their quality of life.
“This program has reached a breaking point, and the safety and well-being of our residents demand urgent and decisive action,” Marmorato wrote. “Our community has waited long enough for meaningful solutions. It is now imperative that the program is removed entirely.”
Since the micro mobility pilot program began in 2021, DOT has allowed up to 9,000 scooters across two phases in the East Bronx from three different e-scooter vendors, Lime, Veo and Bird e-scooters. The program was expanded into Southeast Queens earlier this year where it was met with similar pushback from City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-28), Council Member Sandra Ung (D-20) and State Senator Leroy Comrie (D-14), who called for a similar pause to the program in eastern Queens earlier this fall.
Ung went so far as to introduce legislation co-sponsored by Council Member Lynn Schulman (D-29) that would ban the e-scooters from operating on certain streets in Queens, saying that the Department of Transportation left her “no choice but to seek a legislative solution to a problem they created.”
Marmorato’s letter mentioned that the council member had an October meeting with the Mayor where she voiced her opposition to the program and vowed to notify his office of all the infractions— such as e-scooters strewn about public walkways—brought to her attention. In the following months, Marmorato said her office submitted over 40 reports that painted an “undeniable picture of the program’s harmful and dangerous impact” on the community.
A spokesperson for the council member’s office said that the 40 complaints they forwarded to the mayor’s office represented only a small portion of the actual infractions taking place.
Councilwoman Marmorato has called on Mayor Adams to terminate the Lime scooter program in D13⁰⚠️ Blocked ADA ramps⁰⚠️ Reckless underage riders⁰⚠️ Traffic violations pic.twitter.com/bq7ineTCHA
— Councilwoman Kristy Marmorato (@KristyMarmorato) December 6, 2024
Lime, one of the companies operating the program, disputes Marmorato’s characterization of the service, saying that it promptly responds to complaints and has added staff and technology to address any issues.
But Marmorato says the program is a “complete failure” and the program has “done nothing but create issues, foster dangerous circumstances and compromise safety.”
“While Lime may claim to respond promptly to reports from our office, the burden of identifying, reporting, and tracking these infractions should not fall on the community or our staff,” the spokesperson said. “The core problem lies in the lack of proper oversight, accountability, and enforcement mechanisms within the program itself.”
But the DOT is a strong advocate for the program and described the Bronx e-scooter pilot a “great success” in 2022, about a year after the pilot was launched. DOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez reflected on the program at the time:
“The East Bronx pilot not only provided meaningful mobility options to residents and visitors of a historically underserved community, it helped New Yorkers reduce their dependency on automobiles and try a new, active way of getting around,” said Commissioner Rodriguez.
Last year, e-scooter company Veo suspended service to parts of the Bronx because it had issues deterring vandals from dumping them into the Bronx River.
In District 13, one of the three e-scooter vendors, Lime, reported over 900,000 trips since August 2021 telling the Bronx Times that ridership in 2024 amounted to nearly half of those trips. The e-scooter company added that rides in Throggs Neck have increased by 80% compared to the peak season in 2023.
Lime also told the Bronx Times that it receives almost daily emails from the council member’s office about improperly parked scooters and that it immediately sends staff out to address the complaints.
“We have been working with Council Member Marmorato on this for months and we have made good progress already, so it is disappointing to see her call for the scrapping of a program that has produced over 938,000 rides in her Council District,” said Nicole Yearwood, Senior Manager of Government Relations at Lime.
The e-scooter company said that it constantly communicates with riders to remind them of safety protocols and “rules of the road” saying that it reserves the right to fine and potentially ban bad actors from riding altogether.
