JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — If you’re planning to ride one of the scooters in Downtown Jacksonville this weekend, you'll need to make sure you do it before midnight. The new attraction now has a curfew.
Jacksonville City Council members shut down late-nights scooters in Downtown Tuesday, following a growing chorus of complaints about the scooters. Several people have emailed First Coast News with complaints as well.
According to the new ordinance, the scooters are inoperable from midnight to 5 a.m.
“My mom always said nothing good happens after midnight, so we're going to shut them down between midnight and 5 a.m.," City Councilmember Rory Diamond said.
"Nothing is ever going to be perfect right out the gate, so what we learned was that, you know, sometimes people didn't realize that they had to follow traffic laws when it came to the scooters," he said. "Sometimes kids were having a little too much fun with them after midnight. So, we just needed to tighten up the rules a little bit and start to use them a little bit more intelligently."
Diamond and city officials said they've seen a TikTok video of what appears to show people throwing a scooter into the river. City officials said the scooters' vendor disabled their accounts.
“It’s too easy for these young people, that's who I’m seeing on these scooters, too easy for them to run amok," said Cherie Peterson, a chauffeur Downtown.
Peterson said she doesn't think restricting the hours will make a difference. She said she has seen misuse of the scooters well before midnight.
“I just don’t see how that’s going to help very much," Peterson said. "I can’t imagine there being a good solution except possibly trying it in a different neighborhood area that wouldn’t be so conducive to the after-hours and late-night activities that are going on Downtown."
City officials said they're communicating with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and the scooters' vendors.
“I think everybody on the council realizes that we're going to keep tweaking the program until we get it just perfect," Diamond said.
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