E-scooter-sharing company Lime is reactivating small fleets of scooters in about a dozen cities and will offer free 30-minute rides for health care workers and law enforcement officers, the company announced. Its Lime Aid initiative is meant to address essential workers’ need for transportation while social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“Micromobility plays a critical role in moving people seamlessly through cities, and as an individual form of transportation, scooters can help fill an integral transportation gap at this important time,” the company said in a statement. It will partner with the cities to determine the best locations for the scooters. Lime says in the release the scooters are meant to be used for essential trips only, such as to the grocery store or doctor’s office, not for joy riding or other purposes.

The company plans to start Lime Aid in the first batch of cities, which includes Austin, Baltimore, Columbus, Dallas, Nashville, Norfolk, Va., Oklahoma City, Salt Lake City, and Washington D.C. in the US; Berlin and Cologne in Germany; Paris, France; Rimini, Italy; and Tel Aviv, Israel. Lime says it will expand to other cities in the coming weeks.

Lime, the largest e-scooter-sharing company in the world with some 120,000 scooters in 30 countries, said in March it would be suspending service in nearly two dozen countries. Last week, The Verge learned that Lime was buying up the assets of defunct electric skateboard company Boosted.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/19/21227108/lime-reactivates-scooters-free-rides-essential-workers-pandemic