VEO addresses Genesee River scooter dumping in Rochester
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — You've probably seen them or even used them: electric scooters all across the city of Rochester. Some of them have been seemingly dumped into the Genesee River.
Friday, the Senior Policy and Partnerships Manager & Policy Counsel of VEO, Joe Bott, spoke with News 8's Adelisa Badzic.
'We see this as being kind of a small-scale problem,' Bott said. 'So, have retrieved some, but on the scale of, you know, compared to our total fleet, which is, over a thousand vehicles and amongst the 425,000 rides we did in 2024, it's not something we see on a large scale, the majority of our fleet are completely intact and are operational.'
News 8 asked him if this type of vandalism brings out negative thoughts about terminating the current contract with the city, which was signed in 2023 for three years — he ultimately said they plan to continue operations here.
'Rochester has been a great market. And again, this is something we see on a small scale, we're super excited about being in Rochester and we plan to be a long-term partner,' Bott said. 'And that's been our driving force and what our conversations with the city have centered around.'
When asked what the next plans are on retrieving the vehicles from the water, he said where they are located, they are difficult areas to get down safely to.
'Just making sure we can get down there safely, retrieve them safely, remove them, and then recycle them, which is what we're going to do,' Bott said. 'And so, we've been actively working on a plan for the last several weeks with the city, several months even to get those out of there.'
VEO vehicles are located in over 40 cities throughout the U.S., with only two cities in Upstate and Western New York, those being in Rochester and Syracuse.
Bott asks anyone who sees any kind of vandalism to the vehicles to call the Rochester City services line at 311.
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