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(INDIANAPOLIS) – Indy is capping the number of scooters downtown.

A city board has approved a regulation allowing no more than six scooter companies, each with no more than a thousand scooters. No current operator is close to that number, but Bird, Lime, Spin and Lyft already do business in Indy. And although the Pacers Bikeshare program rents bicycles rather than scooters, it’s included under the rule’s definition of “shared mobility,” leaving room for just one new company.

At least a quarter of each company’s scooter fleet would have to be outside the downtown Mile Square. Permits and licensing administrator Sonya Seeder says the city wants to encourage the scooter companies, but wants to nudge them to fill “last mile” gaps in the transit system, not settle for being a downtown recreational option.

Seeder says the rule seeks to tie the number of scooters to market demand. If a company averages fewer than two rides a day per scooter, it’ll have to take some of the scooters off the street. If the daily average is higher than three per scooter, the company can request an increase in the thousand-scooter cap.

The caps take effect around the end of June.

(Photo: Smith Collection/Gado via Getty Images)