E-Scooter Bans Show Cities Are Hesitant to Embrace Innovation

Adoption of e-scooters has grown quickly, with rider growth exceeding similar first-year adoption rates of other mobility services, such as bike-sharing, car-sharing and ride-hailing apps. Unfortunately, this rapid growth could run head-first into a brick wall as a number of state and local governments start passing laws and regulations that either ban or undermine the viability of e-scooters. In a column for Government Technology, Daniel Castro writes that local governments should adopt regulatory sandboxes to determine how to best handle the new technology rather than ban it altogether.