With last month's launching of USC graduate Frank Scozzafava’s company, Scootaway, students have been able to request ride-share scooters through smartphone apps, providing a favorable alternative to USC’s sweaty shuttle rides and parking woes.
Essentially, anyone with the Scootaway app can rent a moped for $2.99 per half-hour, then scoot to and from one of the 30 designated locations. According to the Scootaway website, these destinations are in 5 Points, the Main Street area, the Vista and around the USC campus — including by the stadium. By this fall semester, Scozzafava says there will be 500 scooters for rent compared to the 38 currently available.
Scozzafava says he got the idea while working to promote a ride-share company that was based in New York City, in an attempt to compete with Uber. He sources Scootaway from this experience and the daily commute he made to work via moped.
“We should just dress people up in little chauffeur outfits and have them pick you up on scooters,” said Scozzafava, remembering the joke he made to a friend, which birthed the idea.
The USC graduate and “Shark Tank” TV show champion already has plans to expand to new cities. According to Scootaway’s website, Charleston and Myrtle Beach will undergo the scooter revolution in August, but Scozzafava plans to eventually be at all 157 colleges in the U.S. that host over 20,000 students.
If transportation and parking are as criticized at those schools as they are at USC, Scootaway will be a welcome accommodation. The company recognized this by way of a tweet which read “Download and Register today! Parking sucked until now!”
As the owner, Scozzafava also sees scooter sharing as a way to address the parking situation.
“You’re driving around in circles. You’re late for class and park your car and you get a ticket or you pay $100 dollars to park your car on campus and you still can’t find a spot,” he said.
Notably, the cheapest garage spot is $360 per semester, which equates to approximately 120 half-hour rides with Scootaway. Scozzafava also anticipates introducing an alternate pricing plan that would allow the renter to request a scooter for a given amount of hours per month, which would potentially lower prices further — leaving USC’s parking services in the dust.
With several Scootaway pick-up points located off-campus, such as Granby Mills and Copper Beech, scooting could potentially change the daily shuttle commute that apartment renters are accustomed to.
Third-year management major Brianna Blakeway lives off campus and doesn't expect to change her regular routine much but admits the scooters might affect other commuters.
Scootaway offers free 30-minute training courses every Sunday at The Carolina Field House from 1 to 6 p.m. and is hosting a pool party at Olympia Granby Mills on Thursday at 12 p.m.