A workshop on July 17 brought the city, the New Haven Police Department and Veo (the scooter operator) before the City Services and Environmental Policy Committee to discuss resident complaints about shared electric scooters.

The session opened with a candid acknowledgement from city operations staff and Veo that the rollout had produced problems. "We do loud and clear here the concerns and fully acknowledge that the expectations that were set at the committee meeting have not been met," a Veo representative said. City staff and the vendor described several technical and operational remedies under way: geofencing to reduce sidewalk riding in specific corridors, tighter ID verification and recurring checks for underage accounts, an expanded set of designated parking corrals and a local operations team tasked with rapid pickup and rebalancing. Staff and the vendor said they have added corral locations, tightened wallet/ payment flows so riders are not inadvertently forced to end rides outside corrals, and were testing reduced end-trip radii (the permitted distance from a corral within which a trip can end) to reduce “drift” caused by GPS inaccuracy.

Police and fire officials participated in the workshop. Fire officials said they review designs for clearance and turning radii and that apparatus have been tested against proposed concepts; the fire chief said the department routinely coordinates with engineering to ensure any new design accommodates emergency access. Police representatives said they would coordinate enforcement and that the vendor has already begun to issue violations and temporary bans for problematic riders.

Alder concerns centered on public-safety threats to pedestrians (especially at night and during busy downtown periods), the visibility and permanence of painted corrals, and whether the city should pause expansion until the vendor demonstrates more reliable technical controls. Several Alders suggested a temporary curfew or stronger enforcement downtown on weekend nights; Veo and city staff said they were prepared to pilot time-based speed restrictions in high-activity areas.

No vote was taken; the session was a workshop. Staff said they will produce a written plan summarizing the vendor changes, geofence rollouts and enforcement protocols and will return to the committee with weekly progress updates until core problems are resolved.

Ending: City staff and Veo pledged near-term changes (expanded corrals, more aggressive ID and underage-account enforcement, reduced end-trip radius testing and improved communications). The committee asked for a written remediation plan and weekly progress updates; members said they would consider further policy action if the technical and enforcement fixes do not reduce incidents of sidewalk riding and unsafe behavior.