We Finally Tried Scooting Around the City of Detroit

Photo Crains Detroit

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to ride an electric scooter around downtown Detroit? I never thought I would have any interest in riding one until the pandemic hit. Since lockdown, I have found myself eager to do all the things that I said I wouldn't, so I decided to go for it. I rented a scooter and spent around a half-hour riding around the city with a friend to see what it was all about. 

The first thing we had to do is decide where we wanted to ride. Being COVID conscience we wanted to make sure we could keep our space, but we also wanted to be in a somewhat populated area. After a little discussion, we decided that Cass Corridor would be the ideal place for us to give scooting a try. Once we decided what part of the city we were going to explore we needed to find 2 scooters to ride. It only took a few minutes to find a place to park and two scooters that were close to each other. There are packs of scooters at almost every corner in Downtown/Midtown/Cass Corridor so it's super easy to find one to ride if your in those areas. 

Signing in to use the scooters was as easy as scanning the barcode and adding my PayPal to the app for payment. Within seconds of entering my information, the scooter lit up to let me know that I was ready to go. Once my scooter was turned on I scanned my friend's and within 5 minutes from signing in for the first time, we were off. Scooting around town was a lot more fun than I thought it would be!

The scooters can go really fast, but once you get the hang of it, they are pretty easy to ride. It only took me a few blocks to start going full speed every time we turned onto an empty block. Every moment of our joyride was amazing. We loved getting a street-level view of the Corridor and having the wind blow through our hair. It is something that everyone should try at least once. 

The only drawbacks of these scooters are that they are not as practical as I thought they would be. I assumed that if you lived in the area you could use them to bop around town, but they are too dangerous, impractical, and expensive to use for regular transportation. You have to be very consicience of pedestrians walking in and out of the businesses around you and there are a lot of cracks in the sidewalk, which means you skip, hop, and jump curbs a lot. Our 30-minute scoot also cost around $8 a person, which means we could have taken a Uber to and from anywhere in the area and spent less than $16. So, when you see these, don't think about them as a way to get around town, they are more of an experience than a tool. 

This was also a good reminder that you should always try something new even when it scares you. I haven't been able to try many new things this year and I treasured the feeling of experiencing something I've never experienced before. I will officially never make fun of someone on a scooter again. I get it, it's fun. You should try it!

Scooter Companies to try:

Bird

Lime-S

Spin

~S