The Alexandria Police Department is seeking witnesses and video footage from a scooter crash involving a 16-year-old rider that occurred yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) in the area of King Street and N. Quaker Lane.
APD said that it is asking for assistance as part of the continuing investigation. No information was provided on the victim or how the crash occurred. More from APD is below.
Welcome to Friday’s weekly roundup of our top stories.
With ALXnow, it’s easy to catch up on the latest news in Alexandria. This week, we focused on coverage of our local, state, and federal governments. We also reported a lot of crime, including a homicide in the city’s West End.
Watch out! Alexandria just reported a record number of dockless mobility trips.
It’s been a long road for e-bikes and e-scooters in the city. March (last month) saw the highest ridership ever with 41,452 trips.
The Alexandria City Council will consider making electric scooter rides cheaper in the poorest areas of the city at its meeting on Tuesday night (March 12).
Council will vote at City Hall (301 King Street) on allowing staff to apply for a $200,000 grant from the Better Bike Share Partnership’s Living Lab Program. The city would have to contribute $20,000 toward the effort, which is intended to increase the ridership with an outreach campaign and by lowering prices for electric scooters and e-bikes in Arlandria and the West End.
One year into the city’s permanent dockless mobility program, data shows electric scooter ridership still hasn’t recovered to its pre-pandemic highs.
In a meeting of the Transportation Commission earlier this month, Sean Martin, shared mobility coordinator, told the Commission that electric scooter and bike ridership has crawled its way back from the lows of 2020 but is still around 65,000 riders shy of pre-pandemic levels.
Anyone riding a scooter through Old Town might want to be mindful of a new “slow zone” coming to one of the neighborhoods.
The City of Alexandria is implementing a slow zone in the Robinson Landing neighborhood as part of a pilot program. The pilot cuts dockless scooters and e-bikes speed to eight mph, below the established city limit of 15 mph.
Currently, electric scooters are only allowed on city streets. While some say that rule makes sense for a place like Old Town, there has been discussion in city meetings recently that it might not be the best policy for the rest of the city.
At a Transportation Commission meeting last week, commissioners and city staff discussed giving the scooters-on-streets policy a second look.
A local nonprofit will leave a locked white “ghost scooter” at the corner of Sanger Avenue and North Beauregard Street this Sunday in memory of a 16-year-old killed at the intersection in August.
Miguel Ángel Rivera was riding an electric scooter when he was struck on August 27. He died four days later.
Electronic scooters could become a permanent part of the city ordinance this Saturday (Nov. 13) even as they head into their seasonal decline.
The approval comes after nearly two years of the program being in a pilot phase — even as scooter usage in Alexandria heads into its seasonal decline. Ridership typically falling to less than 10,000 trips city-wide between December and March. The chart also shows that scooter usage hasn’t come close to reaching its pre-pandemic highs in April and May 2019, though 2021 was still a stronger year for scooter usage than 2020 was. In spring 2020, scooter usage fell abysmally low, despite scooters being encouraged as a healthier alternative to riding the bus or carpooling.
What a busy week in Alexandria.
Our top story this week was on a juvenile who was shot outside the McDonald’s at the Bradlee Shopping Center on Tuesday, Sept. 21. There have also been a number of concerning incidents at Alexandria City Public Schools, including a juvenile who was arrested for trespassing and assault and battery at Alexandria City High School.
The city is looking to make its scooter pilot program permanent, but hopefully with some changes that make them less intrusive for local pedestrians and residents.
Victoria Caudullo, shared mobility planner for the City of Alexandria, spoke to the Waterfront Commission this week to discuss some of the ambitions and limitations of the scooter program moving forward.
