Denver city council approves new scooter contract days before its record-breaking launch

In Denver, Lime and Bird scooters and e-bikes have been available to rent across the city for years. But, in just a couple of weeks, they'll be completely gone.

Denver City Council approved on Monday a contract with a new vendor, Veo. It's just four days before their official rollout, so to sweeten the deal with Denver, they committed to a large up-front investment. The company already has around 150 local staff and around 9,000 vehicles assembled and ready to cruise the town starting Friday.

"This is too big a market transition to fumble," said Alex Keating, Veo's VP of policy and partnerships. "So, we started our investment early."

Keating says the roughly 9,000-vehicle fleet set to be installed in Denver will break a record as the largest single-vendor fleet in the country -- which also allows them to lower prices.

"It'll be more affordable for everyone," said Keating. "Twenty five cents a minute for residents, 39 cents for visitors. That's already a deep discount on what's on the street today."

Affordability and safety are two issues Veo has addressed. According to Denver Health's data, in 2024 and 2025 they treated just shy of 2,000 patients annually for scooter and e-bike injuries.

"Our in-house design and manufacturing is always focused on the safest, most durable vehicles, regardless of whether it's a standing scooter or a seated scooter or a bike. That means our standing scooters have front and rear suspension. We're the only ones who manufacture that way."

Their fleet also includes more sitting vehicles such as bikes and trikes in addition to standard scooters.

"That has significant safety benefits, we see about 35% fewer crashes or injuries on the seated vehicles."

Veo vehicles are equipped with under-deck lighting for night rides and "slow zones" and "no-ride zones." For example, if someone is riding along a 16th Street pedestrian area, the scooter would alert them and begin to slow down.

"Bringing in a fleet mix that prioritizes safe riding is huge."

It's important to note that free rides for low-income riders aren't going anywhere. Similar to Lime and Bird, the company has "Veo Access" which allows eligible riders up to 60 minutes in rides for free every day.

As they roll out their fleet, Veo is providing instant access for this feature without having to verify eligibility for 10 days.