BRYAN, Texas — Blue Duck scooters are back in Bryan, and health and safety protocols are in place to keep users safe.
After launching in Bryan last November, the blue scooters were pulled from operation when the pandemic started.
“We decided to suspend temporarily operations in Bryan and in all of our markets. And since then, we’ve been staying in constant communication with the city to determine when it’s safe to resume. We have put in some heightened cleaning protocols and are trying to be as sensitive as COVID-19," said Blue Duck Scooters Senior Director of Partnerships Megan McNamara.
Starting August 6, residents will be able to rent scooters in the downtown Bryan area from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m using the Blue Duck mobile app. Even before Bryan asked Blue Duck to pause operations in the area as the coronavirus started to spread, the company says they were enhancing cleaning protocols already, and will continue to do so.
“Scooters are sanitized daily and Blue Duck team members continue to observe guidelines issued by local and state officials, including wearing masks or facial coverings, frequent handwashing, screening for fever and symptoms upon arriving to work, and sanitizing workspaces and vehicles," said Blue Duck’s Co-Founder and Senior Director of Fleet Management Jeff Mangold in a press release.
The Blue Duck company will slowly be relaunching their scooters, starting with 25 and then gradually increasing that number. So far though, the City of Bryan has been impressed with what Blue Duck has had to offer.
“We have done an extension of our licensed agreement with them, basically just pick[ing] up where they left off and tak[ing] us through this November, and then we’ll have at least 6/7 months of data that we can bring forward and get some analysis and try to figure out where we go from here," said City of Bryan Deputy City Manager Joey Dunn.
So far, the program has been successful. If you want to try out the scooters for yourself, download their app from the Apple App Store or Google Play.