AUSTIN, Texas — Whether they’re littering the sidewalk, lined up like soldiers in a row, or laying on their side like a lazy dog on a hot summer’s day, the new way of zipping around Austin has people sounding off on dockless scooters.
KVUE has received hundreds of comments expressing frustration over the new dockless scooters lying all over the streets of downtown.
According to data from Austin Travis County EMS, they’re seeing an increase in scooter-related incidents, too. Since January 2018, there have been 42 9-1-1 calls for injuries related to scooters. Nearly half of those 9-1-1 calls were incidents that have occurred in the past two months.
Emergency crews tell KVUE they’ve had to create a new code for scooter-related incidents because they hadn’t seen these kind of calls before, especially not at this volume.