How E-Scooters Transformed My Commute to Midtown

By Ronald “Jay” Parker, Midtown Alliance Green Team Member

When I joined the Midtown Alliance team in late 2021, it took me 90 minutes to get to work. I relied solely on public transportation, catching the bus to the Lindbergh MARTA Station because the bus route that served the closest train station to my home was undependable due to a bus driver shortage. From Lindbergh I would take the train to Midtown station and then walk to the office.

My job as a Midtown Green team member is to keep the district clean, safe and beautiful by doing landscaping and maintenance work, removing graffiti and dead leaves, picking up trash and more. I’ve worked in the landscaping field for most of my life, and this is the best job I’ve ever had. The people here are really nice, and it gives me the opportunity to make the city a little bit better. 

But it’s a very labor intensive job, and some days the work is harder than others. One day I had been working with a shovel for most of the afternoon, and I was exhausted. My four-block walk to the Midtown MARTA Station suddenly seemed like an impossible task. 

Fortunately, that day someone had lined up a bunch of rental scooters along the curb. I had always wanted to ride one. I thought, “Well, now is a perfect time.” 

And it’s so much fun. It’s so stress relieving. Although I don’t consider my job high-stress, suddenly my ride home was like being set free. 

I’ve heard the criticisms of e-scooters — how people only use them for joy rides, they endanger pedestrians by riding them on the sidewalk and they discard them in the public right of way. As someone who spends eight hours a day outdoors working in the district, I’ve seen these bad actors myself. But I can tell you firsthand that e-scooters can transform your commute and your mood. And Midtown is a place where it’s more possible to ride safely because the district is laid out on a street grid with 25 MPH speed limits on the streets. 

Scooter rental fees can add up to $30 an hour, so out of curiosity I started watching scooter reviews on YouTube whenever football wasn’t on TV. You wouldn’t believe all the options you can get! I settled on what people call “the Toyota of Scooters”, Emove Cruiser. It’s not overly fast, it has a long range and it’s really dependable. It also has a water resistance rating, which a lot of scooters don’t have. That means I can ride it in the rain. 

Now that I can ride my scooter directly to the MARTA Station closest to my home, I’ve been able to cut an hour out of my commute in each direction. Even in a car, I wouldn’t be able to get to work in Midtown in under a half hour. And once I get here, I don’t have to deal with the hassle of finding a parking spot. My scooter folds up easily to fit onto the MARTA train whenever it’s crowded, and I also use it to travel wherever I’m going on the weekends, including the park, the grocery store, or to meet friends. 

If you have a long commute to Midtown and you’d like to consider some alternatives, my coworkers at Midtown Transportations can help. Reach out to them here.

This is sponsored content.