City Council members moved Chattanooga one step closer to being the next city with electric scooters in the downtown area at their meeting Tuesday night.
The City Council approved a revised dockless bicycle and electric scooters ordinance in a first reading, with council members Anthony Byrd, Demetrus Coonrod, Russell Gilbert, Jerry Mitchell and chairman Erskine Oglesby voting in favor of it and Chip Henderson, Darrin Ledford and Ken Smith voting against it. Council member Carol Berz abstained from the vote.
Ledford and Smith were the most vocal opponents of the ordinance. They said they didn’t like the headlines that appear when researching electric scooters online, which include stories about cities banning them and hospitals seeing an increase in injuries.
“It’s one of those things where it sounds like a great idea, but nobody seems to have found the best way to implement this idea in a small, tight urban area, and for that reason, I will not be supporting this ordinance this evening,” Smith said.
The ordinance – if the council approves it after its second reading Tuesday – would only be valid for 12 months and then city of Chattanooga officials could look at the impact of dockless bicycles and scooters in the city before renewing it.