Christina Lee, Contributing Illustrator

Next month, electric scooters will be whizzing down the streets of Elm City.

An order approved by the Board of Alders on Monday allows Veo, a Los Angeles-based transportation company, to roll out 300 electric scooters in waves throughout May. Parking stations for the scooters will be clustered in Downtown New Haven, with additional locations in Dwight, Dixwell, East Rock, Wooster Square and the Hill.

Veo will operate in New Haven at no cost to the city, but also pay no fees to the city which will allow the company to offer reduced pricing, including one free 30 minute ride per day, to qualifying New Haveners.

Riders unlock scooters through a mobile app, like Citi Bike and Lime, and pay per minute in addition to a monthly fee.

The Board of Alders, which authorized the mayor to sign a contract with Veo, framed the introduction of the electric scooters into New Haven within the context of the city’s worsening rates of asthma and heart disease — which have been linked to emissions — and noted that close to a third of Elm City households do not have cars.

The move comes after the city’s rollout of a publicly funded, low-cost rideshare app, Via NHV, funded by the Connecticut Department of Transportation. 

Both Veo and Via NHV are aimed at expanding transportation access and being “more climate and people friendly,” according to Steven Winter, the city’s executive director of climate and sustainability.

While Veo has faced complaints and safety concerns in cities across the country, Winter assured the alders’ City Services and Environmental Policy Committee at an April 3 meeting that scooters will not be littered across city sidewalks. Unlike in nearby Hartford, Winter said, Veo users in the New Haven will have to park their scooters in specific locations. If they leave them elsewhere, the app will continue charging them for their ride.

Zooming in to that meeting, Jeff Hoover, Veo’s director of government partnerships, offered his own promise.

“We’re not just going to be a joyriding amenity for Yale students,” he said. Yale’s campus will be among the areas designated as “no-ride zones,” as will the city’s sidewalks.

Seeking to assuage the concerns of several alders, Sandeep Aysola, director of the city’s Transportation, Traffic and Parking Department, affirmed that each scooter’s internal geolocation is fine-tuned enough to distinguish between street and sidewalk.

Still, Ward 26 Alder Amy Marx said that she remained skeptical about the scooters’ technology limitations after the Board of Alders’ meeting this Monday.

Marx noted that Veo’s agreement with New Haven is “subject to continued approval,” and that if the alders “see a concern,” they will gather quickly to reconsider. 

“I have some serious background concerns about scooters — about who will use them and whether they’ll be used safely, about them not being used as vehicles in the roadway,” Marx told the News. “Not only are there drivers who are driving badly who may hit the scooters, I am concerned the scooters will exhibit all those bad behaviors and that we will find people scootering with one hand while looking at their cell phones.”

Lior Trestman, a longtime member of New Haven’s Safe Streets Coalition, wrote to the News that while he appreciated an additional car alternative, he was concerned about the safety of the scooters.

“At present our streetscape is incredibly hostile to anyone not in a car,” Trestman wrote. “So do I support people being able to get around without a car? Yes. Would I recommend getting around New Haven by bike/scooter to anyone without good health insurance? No.”

Ward 17 Alder Sal Punzo, meanwhile, said that he thinks the scooters are “a good idea” and that he is not personally concerned.

Ward 21 Alder Troy Streater was similarly enthusiastic.

“I think it’s a good idea. Just be safe. If it doesn’t work, then we stop it. But you can’t nix it before you try it.”

Veo, which was founded in 2017 at Purdue University, operates at dozens of universities around the country.