The City of Long Beach will launch a 12-month electric scooter pilot program along its shoreline bike path starting on Saturday.
The pilot, approved by the city council in a 6-1 vote on April 1, allows both privately owned and shared e-scooters to operate on designated portions of the Shoreline Pedestrian Bike Path between Alamitos Avenue and 54th Place.
The program aims to assess how e-scooters can safely share space with other users while promoting sustainable and accessible transportation options, according to the city.
“The pilot will also assess compliance with speed limits, right-of-way rules, and helmet use across all modes of transportation. The City’s Micromobility Team will release a six-month report summarizing key findings and recommending whether to move forward with the program, provided no significant issues are identified,” the city said in a news release.
E-scooters will be confined to bike lanes and prohibited on pedestrian walkways. To support the effort, the city will install new signage and enforce separation between users.
Scooters must comply with the California Vehicle Code, which limits their speed to 15 mph. In high-traffic areas, geofencing will automatically reduce speeds to 5 mph. Bicycles, both conventional and electric, will be permitted to travel up to 20 mph.
Long Beach previously launched an e-scooter program in 2018, though scooters were banned from the beach path due to concerns over improper parking and device abandonment.
No crashes were reported on the path during that time.
