GO: Leaf Rides are Back for the Summer Season

DULUTH, Minn. – “We look forward to Summer more than anything. We’re very excited for the warm weather and the people coming and we love the visitors and we love being part of this community and doing what we can to be a transportation provider for it,” said Co-Owner of Leaf Rides, Jed Irvine.

Summer is back and so are the E Scooters and Bikes. Leaf Rides, a company that is going into its fourth season, is a ground-up local start-up that started as a school project for Jed and Latisha Irvine while they were attending UMD. They felt that Duluth had a need for micro mobility transportation and decided to become a provider.

“The culture, the atmosphere, and just kind of the way that the city is set up. We’re on the lake, it’s a beautiful area, it’s a community where everybody kind of comes together and there’s a need for micro mobility transportation in this area for sure. So, getting across town business to business, we want to be able to connect East Duluth to downtown to Canal Park to Lincoln Park. We want to be able to be that transportation provider to kind of connect every where, connect everybody,” said Jed Irvine.

But now, they aren’t the only ones providing E Scooters in the area as this year, a global corporation was approved to drop 300 scooters off on the streets of Duluth.

“We’re going up against some pretty heavy competition this year. So, we are a little nervous to say the least but we are going to do what we can to hopefully bring a local touch to our business and hopefully that counts for something,” Irvine says.

Leaf Rides does such things as designated parking zones, making scooters and bikes easy to find and also provide a free helmet delivery service. Renting a Leaf scooter is a quick process that requires you to download the app, create an account, and insert payment information.

Irvine continues, “After that, user can locate a designated scooter or bike all you’ve got to do is scan the QR code on top of it. It will unlock, they can take it for however long they want, however long it’s got battery.

When finished, you are then prompted to return the device to a designated parking zone which are indicated in the app map. Riders must be eighteen and helmets are a requirement. Leaf Rides currently has about 100 scooters and are looking to put out 50 new E bikes this year.

“It’s been a good season so far. We had a long Spring as anyone who lives here can attest to, so that’s been a little bit of a challenge, but we are finally excited to have the sun out and things warming up and we are actually wearing T-shirts so it’s a good thing,” Irvine says.