Lime, a bicycle and scooter sharing company that recently entered the Starkville and Mississippi State markets, will pull all of its transportation out of Starkville by March 15. (Photo by Briana Rucker, SDN)
There will soon be one less alternative for transportation in Starkville.
Lime, a bicycle and scooter sharing company that recently entered the Starkville and Mississippi State markets, will pull all of its transportation out of Starkville by March 15.
Lime's reasoning behind doing so is that they're changing their business model to provide scooters only.
The transportation company partnered with Mississippi State University last year in a contract to install Lime bikes on campus.
Lime Communications Team member Barbara Morgan said the company was eager to partner on an innovative approach to mobility for Starkville's residents and MSU students and employees.
However, the deal fell through.
The bikes launched on Labor Day 2018 at a special rate for university students.
"We finalized the contract in late summer and then we had the bikes in place around the first day of school," MSU Director of Parking and Transit Services Jeremiah Dumas said.
The fee to unlock the bike was $1, and 50 cents for every 30 minutes thereafter.
To utilize this special rate, students were required to log into the bike's system with their MSU email address.
At the time of the contract, scooters weren't discussed at all due to Parking and Transit regulations.
"We did tell them given our contract with just bikes that we wanted to focus on bikes and we were aware that they were deployed in the city," Dumas said.
Lime's contract with MSU was specific to its pedal bikes and electric assistance bikes.
Parking and Transit Services were also aware of safety concerns raised about Lime scooters based on national incidents.
"We had discussions with Lime that we wanted to maintain that contract of not having any scooters on campus," Dumas said.
Lime also operated with the city of Starkville introducing pedal and electronic bikes, and scooters.
In January, the city approved the placement of 25 Lime scooters in different areas.
The Cotton District and downtown are common areas that the lime green scooters can be spotted.
As previously reported by the Starkville Daily News, Mayor Lynn Spruill thought the scooters were a fun alternative to traditional transportation and expected to see a lot of activity on them.
Lime allowed users to rent rides on the bikes and scooters with their Lime mobile app.
Non-students were able to ride for a $1 unlock fee and 15 cents per minute.
However, since Lime and MSU originally contracted an agreement for bikes only, Lime's new business model clashes with campus regulations.
According to a letter Spruill received from Lime, there isn't an adequate market in Starkville to maintain their business.
"We are proud of Starkville and MSU for being forward thinking about micromobility and remain hopeful about partnering on solutions tailor-made for each in the future," Morgan said.
Lime Operations Manager John Usry said he could not comment on Lime's end in Starkville, but the company will soon release a statement to the public.
Though Lime's presence in Starkville was short lived, Spruill said she hopes that similar, nontraditional transportation concepts will be favorable to Starkville in the future.