On Friday, Oct. 9, at about 6:45 p.m., two electric scooters collided at 8th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue SE. One rider, 50-year-old Talib Shakir, director of the Mayor’s Office on Returning Citizen Affairs, died. The other was treated and released. As of Oct. 10, police hadn’t said what caused the crash, and the Major Crash Unit was investigating.
On Oct. 23, the District Department of Transportation, or DDOT, announced final rules for the companies that rent out scooters and e-bikes. They cover fines and discounts. They don’t cover how fast you can go or where you can ride. Those rules are still coming.
What the new rules do
DDOT can now fine operators up to $100 for improper parking, for failing to move badly parked devices promptly, for blocking pedestrian routes and bike lanes, and for missing fleet deployment standards. Note who pays: the companies, not you.
The rules also change the low-income plan. Eligible riders now get a monthly credit of 300 minutes that doesn’t roll over. Once it runs out, they get 50 percent off. DDOT says the setup mirrors Capital Bikeshare’s, and the change took effect immediately.
DDOT Director Kershbaum said the agency recognizes the importance of “strengthening safety measures, improving compliance, and holding operators accountable,” in the release as posted by PoPville.
What’s still coming
DDOT says another round of rules is due in the coming months, covering vehicle speed, sidewalk riding, permit applications and terms, and how companies earn the right to add more vehicles. “In the coming months” isn’t a date, but it’s a start.
Here’s where things stand now. D.C. law bars riding a personal mobility device on the sidewalk in the Central Business District, which includes Chinatown. It also sets a 10 mph limit and a minimum age of 16. To rent a scooter, you must be 18. Yes, 16 and 18 don’t match. Outside the Central Business District, the law doesn’t bar sidewalk riding.
A DDOT proposal published in September would let rental scooters go up to 15 mph on streets while keeping sidewalk speeds lower. Police haven’t said whether speed played a role in the Oct. 9 crash. A Virginia Tech professor told WJLA there’s a case both ways: “with a higher speed, a crash happens at a higher speed,” but riders can also flow more with traffic. Both can be true.
Who wants what
Council member Charles Allen said in September he wants stronger, uniform city rules, including lower speed limits near pedestrians. Lime, one of the operators, says it “would welcome direct rule setting from the city”, and that its newer scooters have cameras that detect sidewalk riding in the Central Business District. Lime says the point is consistency for riders. So a Council member and a scooter company want the same thing, at least on paper: one rulebook.
Lime also says it banned 1,000 D.C. accounts for riders under 18. The Washington Area Bicyclists Association’s Elizabeth Kiker said the age limit keeps some teenagers from using the vehicles to get to school and work, and suggested considering 16.
Kathy Henderson, a former member of an advisory neighborhood commission, or ANC, and a city advocate, sees it differently. “We don’t need a proliferation of these unregulated scooters beeping,” she told WJLA.
Police, meanwhile, are running safety outreach through the end of the year in Gallery Place-Chinatown, the U Street corridor, and Navy Yard.
Let’s do the math
Officials have reported nine deaths this year: four involving e-bikes, two involving stand-up scooters, and three involving mopeds. DDOT counted 7,150,416 rental scooter trips in 2025.
Tempting to divide one by the other. Don’t. The death counts include mopeds and may include scooters and e-bikes people own, while the trips count rental scooters only, and they cover different years. Two scooter deaths is also a tiny number, so one more or one fewer swings any rate by half. What you’d want is deaths per trip, for the same vehicles, over several years. No published rate turned up.
The same rule applies to the other side’s numbers. A thousand banned accounts tells you Lime has taken enforcement action. It doesn’t tell you how many underage riders are still out there. Raw counts are a start, not an answer.
What comes next
DDOT’s speed and sidewalk rules are next, with no date yet. Police outreach runs through the end of the year. Wear a helmet, says the interim police chief.
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