Atlanta City Council approves reducing scooter, e-bike curfew

ATLANTA - The Atlanta City Council has approved a change to the city's rental scooter and e-bike program that will allow rides for a lot longer.

This week, the council approved the reduction to the rental curfew with a vote of 10 to one with one absent vote. 

The previous curfew for e-bikes and scooters was midnight. That will now change to 2 a.m.

The restriction was first implemented in 2019 following four fatal accidents involving scooters. Initially, then-Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms requested that rentals be shut down at 9 p.m., but this was later extended to midnight. 

In recent months, city leaders have argued the curfew unfairly limits transportation options for those working late-night shifts.

"The logic never really held to me why we were banning one type of motor transportation at night when you had others that were equally vulnerable or equally dangerous," Council member Amir Farokhi told FOX 5. 

The council member added that the curfew affects his working-class constituents in District 2, especially, "workers in town who use the scooters to get to and from their jobs at hotels and restaurants, after hours to get to market and otherwise get home."

The Atlanta Police Department raised concerns about the change, saying that there were safety risks associated with late-night scooter use.

"We do have people that use those scooters once it becomes dark to commit crimes," Assistant Police Chief Carven Tyus told the council in October. "We're all about the connectivity and people using scooters, but we just see a different breed of people using those scooters after midnight."

The newly reduced curfew will now be in place from 2 until 4 a.m.