Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is an interesting conversation. I got an email with
kind of information about ridership of these Green Lime scooters
that you're seeing around town. I mean, they've been around
town for a while now, but how does that work
and how do they operate while the College World series
is going on and you have a lot of people
who are out there. It seems like we're in these
(00:20):
kind of vests. So people have questions or need help,
they're getting the help that they need and stuff. So
we're really happy to be joined by Lee Foley who's
joining us to talk about this today. And Lee, first
of all, thanks so much for being on our show.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, absolutely, thanks so much for having me. Marie.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yeah, I'm looking at this press release and I think
that this is really cool. I'll get to the numbers
in a second, but can you kind of talk about
what you guys do from like an infrastructure standpoint and
just kind of how this whole business as a company
kind of operates. Because I think people see the scooters,
but I'm just not sure they see the scooters as
kind of like available public transportation to anybody that's got
(00:57):
a cell phone.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
No, that is a great point, So just introduce so
Lime as the world's leading provider of a shared micro mobility,
and so micro mobility is the term that has come
up over the last about eight years now for these
sheer bikes and scooters that you see around town. And
so in Omaha, Lim's been serving the city since twenty
twenty and we've been doing so very proudly with about
(01:19):
a thousand vehicles around the city. I'm the number one goal.
Let's make sure that people have an alternative form of transportation,
a way to be able to get around the city quick,
affordably and sustainably. And so you see those vehicles and
they're placed strategically. There's the company that's led by people.
It's a people first company, and we desire to help
people move around.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah, so let's talk about kind of that placement, because
certainly downtown is where I see the most scooters. I'll
see him around in all sorts of different neighborhoods stuff
around Omaha, but downtown you'll see a lot of them.
And especially during the College World series. Well, let's pretend
like it's just a normal week, maybe like this week,
just a normal kind of situation. Do you guys kind
of know about the ridership that you notice in the
(02:00):
Omaha area of people getting on these scooters.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
We do so. Having service city of Omaha for so
many years, we now have a lot of trends, a
lot of understanding of how folks want to be able
to get around the city. We also work with public
transit agencies to coordinate on schedules. If we see that
there's a bus line that may stop operating at say,
let's call it eight pm, we want to make sure
we have vehicles at the bus stops to make sure
that folks can be able to finish their rise or
(02:23):
their commute whenever they are, you know, leaving work, they're
leaving let's say the Doorley Zoo and just making sure
that they're aybody get around town. And so that we've
had about one million trips since we launched in Omaha,
and that means that we have a lot of data
to be able to support how to best meat demand
across the city.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
That's really cool. Or speaking with Lee Foley, who is
with Lime, which is the scooter company that you see
all the scooters around town, Let's go ahead and talk
a bit about the movement rights, Like, so, how do
these scooters go from one place to another. Sometimes you'll
see them and they're all like really nice and neat,
Like somebody's like put these scooters at this particular spot,
(03:02):
and you can tell that they've been put there by
you know, somebody who you know put them all kind
of in a very organized fashion. So how do they like,
how do you guys decide that in who's coming around?
Like who's the scooter faery that's picking these things up
and dropping them where they need to go?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I like that term scooter fairy so much. I got
to talk about the you know, tell that to the
team and start calling us that. And so we've got
teams of folks all across every city that we operate in,
and it's about three hundred cities globally across thirty countries,
and so Omaha is one of the more important cities
for us that we operate in. So that means that
what we have is people going around. They are one
(03:38):
deploying vehicles to the hotspots where we know people want
and have the demand for them. Two is sort of
course correction, Right, we receive complaints from residents on maybe
a scooter that was parked in correctly, maybe it's blocking
a sidewalk. We receive that complaint and our goal is
to be able to move that scooter as quickly as
possible and get it parked the way it's supposed to be.
(04:00):
So we're responsive to the city, responsively the residents, making
sure that people still have access to the vehicles. And
that's true especially for College World Series. As you mentioned
were we've seen thirty percent growth and ridership year over year.
We continue to see that growth, and it's because we
are concentrated on making sure that there's vehicle availability, making
(04:20):
sure that we're where people want to be, making sure
that there's enough vehicles, and also making sure that people
know that it's an option for them. You may not
want to drive over to the stadium, and given the
traffic and everything that builds up on both sides of
the river, you probably want to keep the car at home,
hop on a scooter and make your way maybe fifteen
minute journey over to the stadium and you're there in
(04:42):
notes time.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Yeah, it's really interesting. Lee fully joining us from Lime,
the scooter company that you see around Omaha here on
eleven ten kfab. Let's talk about the College World Series. There,
you guys, the app is great. And I say this
not because I want this to sound like a commercial,
but it's just when you are on the app and
you unlock your scooter and you're using your phone to
(05:04):
kind of navigate, there are red splotches where it shows
you where the scooter's not operational. They don't want you,
for instance, writing your scooter in Old Market in the
Old Market area in downtown because there's a lot of
foot traffic and it just would be a safe, you know,
situation for a lot of people. So you know, you
guys make that determination. I know the map kind of
adjusts once College World Series takes place and there are
(05:27):
kind of like these parking areas for the scooters nearby
where the Charles schwap Field Stadium is. So can you
talk to me about how you determine that and what
those trends are with the amount of ridership, Like you mentioned,
you've seen a big jump from last year to this
year in terms of scooter ridership, and how you guys
are able to allow that to happen with having more
(05:49):
scooters available even though the map itself seems a little
bit more restrictive in the in that area.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah, no, Emory. So exactly what you see is what
we call geo fencing, and those geofences are developed in
co ordination with the City of Omaha, the Omaha Police Department,
and all of the local organizers for College World Series.
And so we say, what are the areas that we
want scooters to be in, what are the areas that
scooters should not be in, and what's going to be
the best rider experience for somebody. Just like you said,
(06:15):
and Marie, you're going to open up that app, you're
going to plan your trip. You want to start off
by planning your trip. Where are you going with the
route that you want to take, Find bike lanes, grab
your helmet, pay attention to the geo fencing, whether or
not it's a place where you can take the scooter,
whether it's a place where you can park or cannot park.
You really want to understand the dynamics of that trip
first so that you're safe and so you have an
(06:38):
ease of use. And so through working with the city
and the police department and the organizers, we develop what
that landscape looks like. We find a place that's near
the stadium to be able to set up our scooter
parking corral and it's a valet scooter parking corral, so
you're also not hunting for a place to be able
to park that scooter. You're going to ride it right
up to the corral, hand it off to one of
(06:58):
our team members to the game.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, it's really cool and you can see how organized
it is when you're over there in that area, and
it's only a block away from where the stadium is,
so it is quite easy. You just have to know
how to use the app and you can get there safely,
just real quickly before I let you go. What's next
for Line?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Right?
Speaker 1 (07:16):
So, I think a lot of people are curious about
these scooters and the fact that there is you know,
like customer service for these scooters. They're not just like
out there and nobody's paying attention to them, but there
are people that are working in our community to you know,
make that as you know, useful as the people who
need to use them, while also not being in the
way for the people who you know, are trying to
walk on the sidewalks or anything like that. What's next
(07:36):
for Line? What are some of the things that you
guys are looking at, especially here in the Omaha market,
Are we going to notice anything different or or do
you think that things are going really well here so far,
but you think going.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Really well, but there's always room for improvement right now line,
what we're looking at what's next for us is always
deepening that relationship with not only the city and the
city officials, but also the communities that we serve. So
that means that we're we want to show up right,
We're giving out free helmet, we're at community events, responsoring programs,
and beings one because we want to make sure that
people are aware of the option that they have. We're
(08:08):
passionate about getting people out of cars and onto line,
bikes and scooters globally and in Omaha specific specifically where
we know that the city's making large investments in public
transit with light row coming in soon and bus rapid transit,
and so we want to be there to be able
to give the city of Omaha a comprehensive transportation network,
and that's sort of what we're starting to see right
(08:28):
the College World Theories. On three days, we had the
three highest ridership days that we've seen in Omaha just
in the past couple of weeks because of the College
World Series. So it's six thousand trips on Saturday, June fourteenth.
We had another handful of trips, thousands of trips on
June twenty first, and then the third highest on June thirteenth.
(08:50):
All together, that was the fifty thousand people that we
were able to help move. And so you can imagine
if that's fifty thousand cars that we were able to
get off the streets during those three days, means that
the people who really do have to drive don't have
to sit in traffic as much because of Lime is
there helping people get there without their cars.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
It's really awesome stuff. It's great, you know, I think
a great asset to the community the way that people
are using it and having that customer service aspect to
it as well. Lee fully with Lime, really appreciate the information.
Thanks so much for being a part of our show today, Emory.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Thanks for giving us a chance to be able to
speak about our service to the city of Omaha. And
Lime is happy to be there. All right.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
That was really cool stuff. And again, if you've never
tried it, I mean it's been very convenient for me
when I've needed it, and also it's been actually a
lot more useful than I think I ever thought it
would be when I was living downtown in the hotel,
the Downtown Hilton especially. But yeah, we'll talk more. We
got all sorts of stuff coming up on news Radio
eleven ten Manice
This is an interesting conversation. I got an email with
kind of information about ridership of these Green Lime scooters
that you're seeing around town. I mean, they've been around
town for a while now, but how does that work
and how do they operate while the College World series
is going on and you have a lot of people
who are out there. It seems like we're in these
(00:20):
kind of vests. So people have questions or need help,
they're getting the help that they need and stuff. So
we're really happy to be joined by Lee Foley who's
joining us to talk about this today. And Lee, first
of all, thanks so much for being on our show.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, absolutely, thanks so much for having me. Marie.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yeah, I'm looking at this press release and I think
that this is really cool. I'll get to the numbers
in a second, but can you kind of talk about
what you guys do from like an infrastructure standpoint and
just kind of how this whole business as a company
kind of operates. Because I think people see the scooters,
but I'm just not sure they see the scooters as
kind of like available public transportation to anybody that's got
(00:57):
a cell phone.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
No, that is a great point, So just introduce so
Lime as the world's leading provider of a shared micro mobility,
and so micro mobility is the term that has come
up over the last about eight years now for these
sheer bikes and scooters that you see around town. And
so in Omaha, Lim's been serving the city since twenty
twenty and we've been doing so very proudly with about
(01:19):
a thousand vehicles around the city. I'm the number one goal.
Let's make sure that people have an alternative form of transportation,
a way to be able to get around the city quick,
affordably and sustainably. And so you see those vehicles and
they're placed strategically. There's the company that's led by people.
It's a people first company, and we desire to help
people move around.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah, so let's talk about kind of that placement, because
certainly downtown is where I see the most scooters. I'll
see him around in all sorts of different neighborhoods stuff
around Omaha, but downtown you'll see a lot of them.
And especially during the College World series. Well, let's pretend
like it's just a normal week, maybe like this week,
just a normal kind of situation. Do you guys kind
of know about the ridership that you notice in the
(02:00):
Omaha area of people getting on these scooters.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
We do so. Having service city of Omaha for so
many years, we now have a lot of trends, a
lot of understanding of how folks want to be able
to get around the city. We also work with public
transit agencies to coordinate on schedules. If we see that
there's a bus line that may stop operating at say,
let's call it eight pm, we want to make sure
we have vehicles at the bus stops to make sure
that folks can be able to finish their rise or
(02:23):
their commute whenever they are, you know, leaving work, they're
leaving let's say the Doorley Zoo and just making sure
that they're aybody get around town. And so that we've
had about one million trips since we launched in Omaha,
and that means that we have a lot of data
to be able to support how to best meat demand
across the city.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
That's really cool. Or speaking with Lee Foley, who is
with Lime, which is the scooter company that you see
all the scooters around town, Let's go ahead and talk
a bit about the movement rights, Like, so, how do
these scooters go from one place to another. Sometimes you'll
see them and they're all like really nice and neat,
Like somebody's like put these scooters at this particular spot,
(03:02):
and you can tell that they've been put there by
you know, somebody who you know put them all kind
of in a very organized fashion. So how do they like,
how do you guys decide that in who's coming around?
Like who's the scooter faery that's picking these things up
and dropping them where they need to go?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I like that term scooter fairy so much. I got
to talk about the you know, tell that to the
team and start calling us that. And so we've got
teams of folks all across every city that we operate in,
and it's about three hundred cities globally across thirty countries,
and so Omaha is one of the more important cities
for us that we operate in. So that means that
what we have is people going around. They are one
(03:38):
deploying vehicles to the hotspots where we know people want
and have the demand for them. Two is sort of
course correction, Right, we receive complaints from residents on maybe
a scooter that was parked in correctly, maybe it's blocking
a sidewalk. We receive that complaint and our goal is
to be able to move that scooter as quickly as
possible and get it parked the way it's supposed to be.
(04:00):
So we're responsive to the city, responsively the residents, making
sure that people still have access to the vehicles. And
that's true especially for College World Series. As you mentioned
were we've seen thirty percent growth and ridership year over year.
We continue to see that growth, and it's because we
are concentrated on making sure that there's vehicle availability, making
(04:20):
sure that we're where people want to be, making sure
that there's enough vehicles, and also making sure that people
know that it's an option for them. You may not
want to drive over to the stadium, and given the
traffic and everything that builds up on both sides of
the river, you probably want to keep the car at home,
hop on a scooter and make your way maybe fifteen
minute journey over to the stadium and you're there in
(04:42):
notes time.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Yeah, it's really interesting. Lee fully joining us from Lime,
the scooter company that you see around Omaha here on
eleven ten kfab. Let's talk about the College World Series. There,
you guys, the app is great. And I say this
not because I want this to sound like a commercial,
but it's just when you are on the app and
you unlock your scooter and you're using your phone to
(05:04):
kind of navigate, there are red splotches where it shows
you where the scooter's not operational. They don't want you,
for instance, writing your scooter in Old Market in the
Old Market area in downtown because there's a lot of
foot traffic and it just would be a safe, you know,
situation for a lot of people. So you know, you
guys make that determination. I know the map kind of
adjusts once College World Series takes place and there are
(05:27):
kind of like these parking areas for the scooters nearby
where the Charles schwap Field Stadium is. So can you
talk to me about how you determine that and what
those trends are with the amount of ridership, Like you mentioned,
you've seen a big jump from last year to this
year in terms of scooter ridership, and how you guys
are able to allow that to happen with having more
(05:49):
scooters available even though the map itself seems a little
bit more restrictive in the in that area.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah, no, Emory. So exactly what you see is what
we call geo fencing, and those geofences are developed in
co ordination with the City of Omaha, the Omaha Police Department,
and all of the local organizers for College World Series.
And so we say, what are the areas that we
want scooters to be in, what are the areas that
scooters should not be in, and what's going to be
the best rider experience for somebody. Just like you said,
(06:15):
and Marie, you're going to open up that app, you're
going to plan your trip. You want to start off
by planning your trip. Where are you going with the
route that you want to take, Find bike lanes, grab
your helmet, pay attention to the geo fencing, whether or
not it's a place where you can take the scooter,
whether it's a place where you can park or cannot park.
You really want to understand the dynamics of that trip
first so that you're safe and so you have an
(06:38):
ease of use. And so through working with the city
and the police department and the organizers, we develop what
that landscape looks like. We find a place that's near
the stadium to be able to set up our scooter
parking corral and it's a valet scooter parking corral, so
you're also not hunting for a place to be able
to park that scooter. You're going to ride it right
up to the corral, hand it off to one of
(06:58):
our team members to the game.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, it's really cool and you can see how organized
it is when you're over there in that area, and
it's only a block away from where the stadium is,
so it is quite easy. You just have to know
how to use the app and you can get there safely,
just real quickly before I let you go. What's next
for Line?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Right?
Speaker 1 (07:16):
So, I think a lot of people are curious about
these scooters and the fact that there is you know,
like customer service for these scooters. They're not just like
out there and nobody's paying attention to them, but there
are people that are working in our community to you know,
make that as you know, useful as the people who
need to use them, while also not being in the
way for the people who you know, are trying to
walk on the sidewalks or anything like that. What's next
(07:36):
for Line? What are some of the things that you
guys are looking at, especially here in the Omaha market,
Are we going to notice anything different or or do
you think that things are going really well here so far,
but you think going.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Really well, but there's always room for improvement right now line,
what we're looking at what's next for us is always
deepening that relationship with not only the city and the
city officials, but also the communities that we serve. So
that means that we're we want to show up right,
We're giving out free helmet, we're at community events, responsoring programs,
and beings one because we want to make sure that
people are aware of the option that they have. We're
(08:08):
passionate about getting people out of cars and onto line,
bikes and scooters globally and in Omaha specific specifically where
we know that the city's making large investments in public
transit with light row coming in soon and bus rapid transit,
and so we want to be there to be able
to give the city of Omaha a comprehensive transportation network,
and that's sort of what we're starting to see right
(08:28):
the College World Theories. On three days, we had the
three highest ridership days that we've seen in Omaha just
in the past couple of weeks because of the College
World Series. So it's six thousand trips on Saturday, June fourteenth.
We had another handful of trips, thousands of trips on
June twenty first, and then the third highest on June thirteenth.
(08:50):
All together, that was the fifty thousand people that we
were able to help move. And so you can imagine
if that's fifty thousand cars that we were able to
get off the streets during those three days, means that
the people who really do have to drive don't have
to sit in traffic as much because of Lime is
there helping people get there without their cars.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
It's really awesome stuff. It's great, you know, I think
a great asset to the community the way that people
are using it and having that customer service aspect to
it as well. Lee fully with Lime, really appreciate the information.
Thanks so much for being a part of our show today, Emory.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Thanks for giving us a chance to be able to
speak about our service to the city of Omaha. And
Lime is happy to be there. All right.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
That was really cool stuff. And again, if you've never
tried it, I mean it's been very convenient for me
when I've needed it, and also it's been actually a
lot more useful than I think I ever thought it
would be when I was living downtown in the hotel,
the Downtown Hilton especially. But yeah, we'll talk more. We
got all sorts of stuff coming up on news Radio
eleven ten Manice
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