Scooters took over SXSW and that’s only the beginning

I thought 2015, when Meerkat dominated SXSW, would be the last year the annual tech festival turned brand extravaganza had a breakout star. Scooters have proved me wrong.

While the conversation on SXSW’s many stages has been dominated by politicians talking 2020, scooters have taken over just about everything else.

There are currently 8,403 electric scooters in Austin, according to city data. And while not all of them are in the streets and sidewalks immediately surrounding the convention center, you wouldn’t know it from walking around. 

Scooters are literally everywhere, with shared vehicles from Uber, Lyft, Bird, Lime, and Spin (and a couple of others) lining the sidewalks. Uber and Lyft have a number of employees promoting their companies’ wheels, while others in safety vests walk around and attempt the impossible task of righting all the knocked over scooters so they resemble a gleaming example of micro-mobility and not a useless pile of scooter trash.

On the roads, Austin’s cyclists and pedicab drivers fight for space in the bike lanes. Signs warn cars to watch out for “people on wheels and feet.” Police officers patrol the official “pedestrian zones,” where scooters aren’t allowed but somehow still manage to end up.

And if you’re not riding a scooter, you’re probably complaining about them. Ask around and everyone has a story about almost being hit by an oblivious scooter rider, or seeing someone on a scooter doing something dumb. 

Because while Austin has embraced scooters more than many other municipalities, the chaos of SXSW has put some of the issues surrounding the vehicles on full display. For example: not everyone got the memo that you’re not supposed to ride on the sidewalk. (Though Lyft, to its credit, did hand out a pamphlet advising on proper scooter etiquette.) 

Having taken a couple scooter rides around Austin myself, it’s quickly apparent that scooter riders on the sidewalk is likely about much more than just plain ignorance. While some streets have protected bike lanes, many do not. And the amount of construction currently happening in downtown Austin means there are numerous potholes and less usable space than in the past.

As a city Austin has gone from 708 scooters last April to the more than 8,000 today, so these growing pains aren’t unique to SXSW, even if they are exacerbated by it. 

Still, while combining thousands of scooters with hordes of party-hopping pedestrians seems like a recipe for disaster, city officials say that so far, there haven’t been any major incidents.

A spokesperson for Austin Transportation Department said 33 scooters have been confiscated by police for blocking the right of way since SXSW started. She added that there have not been any “significant” crashes, though I did hear talk of at least one scooter-related broken bone.

For scooter companies, these kinds of issues are likely little more than a necessary blip on their way to getting thousands of scooters into every city. And, at SXSW — a place already dedicated to corporate one-upmanship — every scooter company wants to be the scooter company.

Uber has big stands filled with its Jump scooters and bikes. Lyft handed out pamphlets. Spin attached “Free $5” signs to all its scooters (which means that you get a $5 credit, not that the scooter is simultaneously free and $5).

Whether this will succeed in winning over riders’ loyalty when scooters inevitably arrive in their own towns is unclear. What is obvious, though, is that these companies firmly believe scooters are the future. 

And our sidewalks are only going to get more crowded.