Lime will bring e-scooters, e-bikes back to Overland Park

Lime e-scooters and Bird e-scooters parked next to each other. Image via Shutterstock.

Lime Micromobility will bring a fleet of its electric scooters and bikes to Overland Park for riders to rent.

On Monday, the Overland Park City Council unanimously approved a new operating agreement with Neutron Holdings, Inc., the California-based business arm of Lime.

The item was part of the council’s consent agenda, which means it wasn’t individually discussed and was approved with no discussion.

The new pilot program comes after another e-scooter vendor, Bird, abruptly left the city last year.

Lime could bring scooters, bikes as soon as this month

Lime could deploy its e-scooters and e-bikes in early April, though an exact date is unclear, according to city documents.
Overland Park will get 25 cents per ride, same as in the city’s previous agreement with Bird, and riders have to be at least 18 to use the devices.
Riders are encouraged to wear helmets as well, though no specific city rule requires it.
Lime intends to distribute 200 free helmets to residents over a 12-month period, likely through community engagement events.
Plus, Lime will create designated parking areas for riders to leave e-scooters and e-bikes when they’re done using them.
The pilot with Lime is set to last through 2025.

E-scooters and e-bikes could return to Overland Park thanks to a proposed agreement with Lime. Above, Mayor Curt Skoog rides a Bird e-scooter in downtown Overland Park in 2022. Photo via city of Overland Park. — E-scooters and e-bikes will return to Overland Park under a new agreement with Lime. Above, Mayor Curt Skoog rides a Bird e-scooter in downtown Overland Park in 2022. Photo via city of Overland Park.

Bird brought scooters, bikes to Overland Park two years ago

The partnership with Bird started in 2022, with the company bringing a fleet of bikes and scooters to rent through the company’s app.

But by August 2023, the company had stopped operating in Overland Park and some other surrounding cities.

At that time, city staff said communication with Bird was inconsistent, but eventually the company cited staffing troubles as the reason for its sudden departure.

Approximately 22,000 Bird bike and scooter rides were reported while the Bird devices were available in Overland Park, Brian Shields, Overland Park’s traffic engineer, said. The vast majority of those rides were on scooters.

The city’s agreement with Bird for the initial pilot was set to have expired in November 2023 anyway.

Next steps:

Lime is expected to bring a combined 200 e-bikes and e-scooters to Overland Park in the initial rollout.
More scooters and bikes could come later as needed.
Because the Lime agreement isn’t exclusive, other vendors could reach similar agreements with Overland Park in the future to provide their devices within city limits.

Looking back: Bird pulls scooters and e-bikes from Overland Park