Salem Suspends Scooter Program Downtown On October Weekends

SALEM, MA — Downtown Salem will be a "no-go zone" for electronic scooters on weekends in October. The city received several complaints last weekend about the pilot program, which was launched in July in a partnership with Zagster. Salem sees tens of thousands of visitors in the weeks leading up to Halloween, with most of them arriving on weekends.

"With the anticipated crowds in October, we have worked with Zagster to implement changes to the scooter program that will limit scooter use in the downtown area on busy Haunted Happenings weekends. In essence, on weekends in October and Halloween, the downtown will be a No-Go Zone for scooters," Mayor Kim Driscoll said in a Facebook post. "Scooters will be balanced to parking locations outside the downtown area, which will allow residents and SSU students in those neighborhoods to be able to utilize a scooter to come downtown if they wish."

Scooters will be programmed so they cannot operate in the no-go zone. On the weekends of Oct. 19-20 and Oct. 26-27, the city will set up scooter drop-off zones on the edge of downtown at both weekend shuttle stops at 108 Jefferson Avenue (NSMC) and 32 Forest Avenue (SSU O’Keefe Center).

Driscoll also released updated statistics on the pilot program. More than 6,000 riders have taken 19,068 rides and covered more than 11,000 miles since the pilot program launched in July. During that time, only two accidents have been reported, including one in which a scooter rider hit a parked car.

"That works out to an accident rate of 0.012%. For comparison purposes, in that same period of time, according to MassDOT data, there were 154 motor vehicle crashes in Salem," Driscoll said.

The scooter program has gotten mixed reviews. The scooters are either "out of control" or enjoyable, while bike lanes set up under a separate pilot program were either "useless and ridiculous" or lovable, based on the four comments Driscoll shared with residents in August. The scooter program will shut down for the season in November, and city officials will evaluate data as they consider whether to launch it again next year.