Richard Ruel was 47. He had overcome the loss of his 12-year-old daughter to cancer in 2010 and successfully strived to stay sober. He was a few weeks away from receiving his driver’s license in an effort to replace his personal e-scooter, his main mode of transportation, which he used to get from his home in North Fort Myers to his job at Downtown House of Pizza in Fort Myers.
He and his daughter Kloey Ruel, 23, planned a trip where he’d visit her in Muskegon, Michigan, in mid-August. She said they talked about it every single day and that her father was super excited.
On Saturday, July 19, less than a month before the trip, he was riding his e-scooter to see a friend in downtown Fort Myers. There, on an undisclosed residential street about 30 minutes before noon, a golf cart struck him. He was transported to Gulf Coast Medical Center, where he remained incapacitated until pronounced dead at 7:07 p.m. that day.
He was not wearing a helmet.
Details remain limited as a homicide investigation remains ongoing. The Fort Myers Police Department did not respond to a request for comment on the investigation’s progress.
About one month after Ruel's death, the City of Fort Myers and Spin, a micromobility company headquartered in San Francisco, California, on Aug. 16 began rolling out the first phase of an agreement to bring e-scooters to the streets of downtown Fort Myers. While some support the initiative, others are concerned about what the program lacks and what it could bring to the already bustling streets and sidewalks of the downtown area.
“On Friday night, it’s so busy downtown with the traffic and cars, the cars can barely drive up and down the streets,” Robert Waters, the general manager for Downtown House of Pizza, said.
Bruno Lopes, a spokesperson for Spin, said this is the main issue the e-scooter initiative aims to alleviate.
“The reason for the market is there’s a great and vibrant downtown area with congestion issues, both parking and traffic wise,” Lopes said. “So, for us, it made a lot of sense to provide another transportation option to those folks that are trying to get around downtown.”
Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson has high hopes for the project and what it aims to do for the streets, citygoers, and residents of downtown Fort Myers.
“Unfortunately, people in this community rely heavily on automobiles, which we experience the traffic load and overload on a daily basis, including in the downtown area,” Anderson said. “Streets are narrow. Parking is limited.”
The e-scooters operate under strict predesignated borders, also known as “geo-fencing” technology, according to Anderson. This allows the city and the company to coordinate where e-scooters may be rented and used, and at what speeds. As of now, the top speed for a Spin e-scooter is 12 mph in designated areas while other areas — colored in yellow on the app — are designated slow areas, where the e-scooter’s top speed will automatically decrease.
“If you open up our app, it clearly shows what the outside border is, and that’s where the scooters, should they cross those borders, they essentially slow down to a stop fairly quickly so you can’t get too far from it,” Lopes said.
Waters said while he thinks “it’s a cool concept,” he remains skeptical of the overall safety measures in light of what happened to his team member, especially because the micromobility company does not provide or require the use of a helmet. Instead, Spin strongly encourages riders to wear a helmet. Florida law does not require riders over the age of 16 on most micromobility devices to do so.
Waters said he wants to see the helmet rule within the company change and thinks it will prevent more bad outcomes.
“I would like to see helmets attached to those scooters, and then maybe like some type of disposable liner so that people feel comfortable putting it on their head, OK?” Waters said. “And that way, you put the helmet on your head, and at least if you bump into a curb or hit something or lose control, your head is protected.”
Kloey Ruel also stressed how she wants others to know the risks of what they are doing and to be safe while doing it, noting how proper safety equipment is paramount.
“I just, I don’t want anybody’s family to have to go through what I’m going through,” Ruel said.
Other Spin rules specify a rider must be a minimum of 18 years old. One rider is allowed per vehicle, and all riders must follow all traffic laws just as if one were biking.
While some rules can be enforced via oversight and planning, Anderson said others are up to the community to follow and respect. He said the one that springs to mind is the regulations regarding the use of micromobility devices, specifically on sidewalks in the downtown area.
“We ask people to realize that whether it’s a scooter or a bicycle or a skateboard, that sidewalks are primarily designed for pedestrian foot traffic,” Anderson said. “And pedestrian foot traffic doesn’t mix well when you add vehicles or bicycles or scooters.”
Instead, riders must use the e-scooters on the streets in the downtown area.
Dr. Thomas Chase, a Fort Myers resident since 1980 and retired personal injury attorney, recalls an experience in which a rider on an e-scooter violated this rule and sped past him while he was walking down a sidewalk in the downtown area.
“Like a near death experience,” Chase said. “I had one whiz by me the other day, and if I had taken one step in that direction, we would have both been on the ground.”
Chase said that by adding more e-scooters for people to utilize in the area, such instances for other citygoers are also likely to increase.
“It just seems like a Pandora’s box of liability,” Chase said.
Angie, who does not wish to disclose her last name, is a tourist from Chicago and represents the other side of the issue. She said the e-scooters provide a much more convenient mode of transport for those in her shoes.
“Especially if you’re a tourist and you’re trying to get somewhere and you don’t have a car, these would come in handy,” Angie said.
Thirteen corral stations are distributed around the downtown area making it easier for users to find and return the e-scooters in high-traffic areas. All 13 can be viewed on the Spin app.
After downloading the Spin app, creating an account, and adding a payment method, riders must pay a flat fee of $1 to start the ride and 39 cents per minute until the ride ends. The per minute fee is subject to change as the pilot phase continues to progress.
The contract between the city and Spin, according to Anderson, could allow up to 400 e-scooters to be distributed around the city, assuming the “soft launch” is effective and beneficial to the downtown area.
“We’re in this pilot phase,” Anderson said. “Let’s see how it works, and then if there’s potential or opportunity to expand, we will certainly take that, assess that, and see how that will work. You know, we can phase something in, and if it’s not working right, we could phase it out just as quick as we phased it in.”
However, residents like Waters and Chase said only time will tell whether the safety measures currently put in place with the e-scooters are enough to protect lives and families like Richard Ruel’s.
“I would just like them (the city) to look at this situation and see the impact that it’s made,” Kloey Ruel said. “Someone who, you know, struggled with their life in the passing of their daughter and finally gets sober and has so many things to look forward to. All the time he was grateful to be alive, and he could be here for all of us. It angers me, and there’s just a deep sadness from it, and I just want them to know how much this could impact people if this happens to anybody else.”