The Land Use, Transportation & Infrastructure Committee unanimously advanced a bill to establish mandatory parking zones for rentable e-scooters and bikes in certain neighborhoods. The proposed ordinance would also require the vehicles be fitted with technology that detects when users ride on sidewalks and mandate compliance tests that riders must pass before being able to rent the vehicles.
The proposal will go to the full City Council for consideration in the coming weeks.
"This is a policy proposal to save lives," bill sponsor Councilman Chris Hinds said during Tuesday's meeting. "People are dying. Literally, that’s not a joke. People are dying because of micromobility crashes."
The latest death came on Sunday night, when a woman riding a standing e-scooter on Colfax Avenue in Capitol Hill was fatally struck by a suspected impaired driver. Denver Health registered 1,962 patient visits attributed to scooter injuries in 2024 — more than five each day of the year.
Despite safety concerns, e-scooters have become deeply ingrained in Denver's transportation system since they hit the city in 2018. There were nearly 5.8 million e-scooter trips taken in Denver in 2024, around 15,880 per day. For many users, the vehicles are a convenient tool to supplement public transit systems or provide a more environmentally-friendly alternative to car travel without the physical and time demands of bike-riding or walking.
“With that increased adoption, there are also increased risks," Hinds said. "We want to make sure that people have the ability to have that last-mile connection, to have that car-alternative connection. But we certainly want to make sure that people are safe."
Some downtown residents spoke of the perils of e-scooters during Tuesday's public hearing, describing the vehicles as a blight on their neighborhoods.
"I parrot the words of how dangerous it feels to walk downtown," said Five Points neighborhood resident Gale Vondrasek. "I take walks every day. I'm looking over my shoulder before I change lanes — on the sidewalk. I look around the corner before I take a step forward. I look both ways on the bike lanes, because who knows which way they're coming. The issue, obviously, has to be addressed."
City law already requires e-scooters to be ridden in a bike lane or on the right-hand side of a roadway, not on sidewalks. Regulations also mandate that parked scooters cannot impede pedestrian or vehicle traffic. These laws are scarcely enforced, however, with violations commonplace downtown.
"They’ve become an obstacle course," said Elle Baker of the Union Station neighborhood. "Even with a marked corral at 18th and Wynkoop, scooters are being dumped on every surrounding corner. ...Residents have been blocked from their own driveway. Scooters are left in front of our garage entrances and directly in front of our drive."
The proposed bill would require that e-scooters and bikes be parked in designated corrals in certain high-traffic areas of the city. Users would not be able to end their rides until the vehicles are properly parked. These mandatory parking zones would include the downtown Union Station and Central Business District neighborhoods, with the neighborhoods given six months and one year, respectively, to roll out the change.
The Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI) would have the power to designate additional mandatory parking zones around town, with Hinds expressing interest in RiNo and the Ballpark District.
Sidewalk Rules Get Bumpy
The bill would also mandate that micromobility companies add technology to e-scooters and bikes that identifies and tracks when the vehicles are being ridden on a sidewalk. The vehicles also must have features that could intervene in some way, like by automatically slowing down, increasing the cost of the trip for the rider for the time they are on the sidewalk, or emitting an audible message telling the rider to get off of the sidewalk.This aspect gave pause to some council and community members, however. District 1 resident Alejandra Castañeda argued that sidewalk riders are simply "behaving in the way their built environment forces them to," noting that e-scooters are often used by teenagers as "an invaluable" transportation method.
"It isn't good policy to rely on education and punitive measures. We need a built environment that encourages safe scooter and bike riding and parking," Castañeda added.
Councilwoman Flor Alvidrez echoed these concerns, saying many teens in her district use the vehicles to get to and from school: "If we’re pushing the kids out onto the street…it’s very difficult to think about putting kids on Federal Boulevard," she said.
While sidewalk riding is already illegal in Denver, the proposed bill would stop short of forcing riders into the road. The bill does not include anything about enforcing the sidewalk ban, only fitting vehicles with the technology capable of tracking and intervening.
The goal is to identify where people are riding on sidewalks and begin conversations on how to address it, according to Councilman Darrell Watson, who is sponsoring the proposal with Hinds and Councilwoman Sarah Parady. Micromobility companies would have to submit quarterly reports to the city, including crash data, education initiatives, and the location and frequency of sidewalk riding.
The bill would also require micromobility companies to test users on their knowledge of local regulations. Before they could rent an e-scooter or bike for the first time, users would need to pass a "simple test" addressing laws on parking, sidewalk riding, helmet use and restricted areas; DOTI would have to approve the test and decide how often it need be administered.
The bill specifies that the companies are responsible for any user violations, subjecting the companies to potential fines ranging from $150 to $999 for each administrative citation issued. Hinds described this as an essential component of the proposal for some councilmembers.
"I don’t think we have a scooter problem, I think we have a scooter company problem," Councilman Paul Kashmann said during the meeting. "I don’t think the scooter companies have an interest in really solving these problems. They’ll do the minimum they legally have to do. ...I really don’t know if there’s a solution. I think the legislation is certainly a step in the right direction.”
If passed by the full City Council, the new rules will take effect beginning on July 1, 2026.
