To prioritize rider safety on Fake Patty’s Day, the micromobility firm Veo will temporarily pause electric scooter operations in Manhattan from 8 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Sunday.
Veo rolled out 250 scooters last weekend to Kansas State’s campus and its immediate vicinity.
Aaron Madrid, Veo’s policy and partnerships manager, said the City of Manhattan and K-State discussed Fake Patty’s Day with the company before the rollout.
“We have new assets that we manufacture and bring to the area, and we, of course, don’t want to see any damage happen to them because that would just reduce everybody’s ability to keep using them in the future,” Madrid said. “After talking with the city, talking to the university and getting some feedback from the various law enforcement and safety groups … we thought it would be best for us to restrict our operations next weekend while we get an understanding of what the City of Manhattan sees during Fake Patty’s Day.”
Madrid said Veo app users are restricted from renting the company’s Astro electric scooters in Aggieville or around the university this weekend.
“In the name of safety, it would probably be good to put some systems in place to make sure that we’re not facilitating any bad decisions that could potentially happen next weekend,” Madrid said.
Veo operations manager and K-state graduate Kevin Harvey said Veo prioritizes rider and pedestrian safety.
“When you download the Veo app, we have a bunch of safety guidelines that are there, as well as a quiz,” Harvey said. “ . We have designated parking zones to help keep the area clean and make sure that the campus is looking as beautiful as when it started in 1860.”
Madrid said Veo will work with the university and city to establish geofencing areas — a virtual geographical boundary — during major community events.
“When sporting events or major events happen, we’ll put geofences in place to potentially restrict vehicles from accessing certain areas, slow them down, or require different types of parking behaviors,” Madrid said. “All of that’s generally communicated through our app and different events that we might partner with the university or the city on to provide that information as well.”
Manhattan assistant city manager Jared Wasinger said Veo’s pilot program started with the core of K-State’s campus but will expand throughout the city.
“From a city perspective, we knew that students were going to ride scooters off campus,” Wasinger said. “They’re going to want to ride throughout the city and go to places like Aggieville and Town Center.”
K-State’s director of parking and transportation Adrienne Tucker said the e-scooters provide last-mile solutions for students.
“We really want to build out a robust micromobility program that involves not just e-scooters, but e-bikes as well as normal bicycles and bicycle storage, well-lit pathways connecting to the city’s bike lanes and pedestrian walkways that are well marked and well lit,” Tucker said. “It’s kind of like a whole ecosystem, and the e-scooters — and soon-to-be e-bikes — are going to be a part of that.”
Harvey said Veo intends to help community members get “from point A to point B in a quick manner.”
“I know plenty of times when I was on campus, I ran late going to the business building,” Harvey said. “We’re happy to be here and provide a service.”
Madrid said Veo builds beneficial partnerships with its stakeholders.
“We were born on a university campus, so it’s a market and an industry that we’re very familiar with and comfortable operating in,” Madrid said. “We’ve always been a partner first before anything else.”
