This is the era of scooter commuters.

You may have seen people in business suits dashing down the sidewalk or heading to the office, taking their standing electric scooter with them. Electric scooters are quickly becoming a new tool for South Florida commuters who are ditching their cars due to gas prices or simple convenience.

Many South Florida commuters use electric scooters to solve the “first and last mile challenge” – the distance from a transit stop to someone’s final destination.

“Scooters and bicycles fill that void,” said Steven Abrams, Tri-Rail’s executive director. “It’s popular because people can move between cities and then be able to get to their final destination using their bikes or scooters.”

At Tri-Rail and Brightline stations, commuters get creative, sometimes bringing electric scooters, bicycles, rollerblades and even electric skateboards. Scooters offer the advantage of moving quickly without the effort involved with bicycles or skates.

“To commute like I do, I love it. It’s good. It’s so much better than driving,” said Mark Koenig.

Koenig lives in Fort Lauderdale and takes the Brightline to Miami for work. Although Koenig received his scooter as a gift before gas prices rose, he said he would probably want to buy one now anyway.

“If I didn’t do it already, I would seriously consider it,” Koenig said.

Colton Ralston, the owner of Boca Scooters, said the recent rise in gas prices is causing more people to turn to electric scooters.

“Any time the gas spikes, we see a spike in scooter sales,” Ralston said.

He said his store’s shoppers are divided into those who buy electric scooters for leisure and those who buy them with a daily commute in mind.

“I would say about half of my buyers live a mile or two or three from work or school and want to get there and are willing to ride a scooter down the sidewalk and get to where they need to. go,” Ralston said. “And then the other half is more like, they live in big gated communities and they want to walk around and their neighbors have golf carts, that sort of thing.”

These shorter distances between bus or train stops and home or work are good for scooters, Ralston said. The cost of parking, gas or carpooling quickly becomes expensive. Parking at Tri-Rail stations is free, but parking at Brightline is $5 if you add it to your ticket or $15 for all day in the garage.

“I imagine after a few weeks you’d probably be more than halfway to buying a scooter,” Ralston said.

Daniel Paiva first bought his scooter for recreation but now uses it to run the half mile at each end from his home in Miami to work in Fort Lauderdale. He said it was a worthwhile investment.

“You don’t pay for parking; you don’t pay for gasoline. You can mount it in a building or something,” he said. “So it’s pretty handy.”

One downside mentioned by Paiva is security. “It depends where you are. If you’re in a high traffic area it can be very dangerous because you know, drivers are crazy. Most people don’t wear helmets…” he said.

The scooters have faced regulatory hurdles in cities like Fort Lauderdale, which was one of the first in Florida to adopt dockless electric scooters, allowing riders to rent them using an app and leave them on the sidewalk when they’re done. But due to COVID and a number of accidents and complaints from pedestrians and scooter riders clashing on sidewalks, Fort Lauderdale banned electric scooters in 2019 for nearly two years.

That same year, the state legislature voted to treat scooters like bicycles, allowing cyclists to use streets and bike lanes rather than sidewalks only. The bill still leaves other scooter regulations to the municipalities.

Many scooter commuters can only go about 20 miles per hour on their scooters, but some devices can go much faster. Paiva says he saw people on the train with the kind of scooter that can go up to 40 miles per hour.

Brightline rider Seth Goldberg has two high-end scooters he alternates between when he goes to work. He lives in West Palm Beach and works in Fort Lauderdale, and he cited ease of travel as the main appeal of electric scooters.

“It’s 100% worth it for the convenience,” he said. “There is no waiting for a rideshare or Uber. Brightline accepts it. There is an area where we can put our scooters.

Brightline offers a shared ride service that will take users up to 5 miles from the station for $5 or less. Even with this service, Goldberg says his scooters save him time. If it’s raining, he can use the Brightline shared ride or take an Uber.

Regular Tri-Rail user Grace Marcel uses her electric scooter to connect between the train and the buses.

“It’s easier with a scooter and I save time,” she says in Spanish. “It’s easy to take with me on the bus or train.”

Marcel does not have a driver’s license and uses his scooter to cover short distances. Even when she takes the bus or train, her scooter is still useful for connecting over shorter distances. She said she noticed other people doing the same when she took Tri-Rail.

“I see a few people with scooters,” she said. “No longer with bikes, but one or two people with scooters every time I take the train.”

Marcel bought his e-scooter on sale for $300, which is below that for scooters. Slower scooters with smaller batteries cost hundreds of dollars, but fast scooters that can last longer between charges can cost upwards of $1,000.

Although e-scooters are more common in big cities like New York and San Francisco, Ralston added that Florida is a great place for e-scooters.

“Florida is going to be one of the best places in the country for that because it’s flat. You don’t have hills. You don’t struggle with snow and sleet and ice, and you get 12 months per year,” Ralston said. “It’s not seasonal.”

It’s not just commuters who buy scooters. Ralston said students at Florida Atlantic University love scooters “because there’s such a problem with parking.” It will also see parents entering the store who will buy scooters for themselves and their children to ride around the community.

“You save yourself time, you save yourself headaches, you save yourself money, whatever the combination of those three is,” Ralston said. “That’s where they really get used to.”

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