ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — Five years after the City of Atlanta imposed an overnight curfew on electric scooters and bikes, restrictions have rolled back.

Back in November, the Atlanta City Council voted to cut down the curfew to just two hours, meaning that e-scooters and e-bikes are now blocked off from being rented between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m.

Previously, the curfew prevented rides from midnight until 4 a.m.

On Saturday evening, Allen Gordon zipped around the Atlanta Beltline on an electric scooter. He reflected on how micromobility has grown throughout the city.

“You can’t come into Atlanta without seeing a scooter,” he said. “I’d say it’s a pretty big scooter city.”

Back in 2019, the original curfew was put in place by Atlanta leaders after a surge in deadly scooter accidents.

Gordon said the newly reduced restrictions provide practical options for overnight commuters.

“I think it would help people get home safer, from a crime perspective,” he said. “The less you’re on foot, the less susceptible you are to person-to-person crime.”

Gordon, however, said he believes the cut-down curfew could bring challenges.

“It might not be so safe, from a crash-safety sort of perspective,” he said.

Skylar Pocock and Farida Igbadume were walking within the Krog District on Saturday. Both women raised concerns about a potential increase of intoxicated riders.

“I can see where that would be a bad idea, for sure, for club and bargoers,” Pocock said.

Igbadume shared a similar thought about people scootering or biking under the influence of alcohol.

“If it’s there and people know that the time constraint isn’t what it used to be, it’s just easy to just get on one, especially because they’re everywhere,” she said.

Atlanta News First reached out to Lime, which operates a substantial fleet of e-scooters and e-bikes in Atlanta.

Carol Antunez, the company’s senior manager of government relations, said these reduced restrictions will help hospitality and healthcare workers.

“This was a big deal to many of our riders who need that first and last mile connection on their way to work or school during less traditional hours,” she said. “Our service is widely popular with residents and visitors across industries.”

Lime reported record ridership numbers in Atlanta this year. The company is on pace for 1.7 million rides in 2024, a 44% increase from 2023.

Bird — which also operates hundreds of electric scooters in Atlanta — echoed a similar sentiment. Adam Davis, the company’s principal government partnership manager, emphasized the expanded access to late-night mobility.

“By allowing two additional hours of operation each night, this provides residents and visitors with safer, more reliable, non-car mobility options outside traditional commute hours,” he said.

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Visiting the Washington Commanders this weekend, the Atlanta Falcons are hoping the game will be the second in a long and successful career for quarterback Michael Penix Jr.

On the Commanders’ side of things, however, they’re hoping Sunday night will be the latest game in a highly successful rookie campaign for quarterback Jayden Daniels, who is the favorite to win the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year Award for 2024.

Those two statements show where each quarterback is in his career, even as Washington and the Falcons stand incredibly close in the playoff standings entering Week 17.

Because of the differences, however, one key to the Commanders getting a win in what will likely be their final home game of the season is to force the opposing quarterback to throw the ball as much as possible.

That’s because one of the best ways to defeat your opponents is to force them into becoming something they don’t want to be. For the Falcons, they want to be a running team.

Running backs Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier provide Atlanta with a potent one-two combination that can shorten a game, give their team control of the clock, and put pressure on opponents because shorter games mean fewer possessions to produce points.

In the month of December alone, the Falcons’ running backs have produced a 4.2 yards per carry average and ran the ball a league-high 132 times.

As long as they can run it against Washington, Atlanta is going to do it. So, getting them off of that trend is going to take two things. First, it’s going to take stopping that rushing attack in the first place.

Commanders defensive tackle Jonathan Allen tore a pec muscle in the team’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens in Week 6 and hasn’t seen the playing field since. He has seen the practice field for two weeks now and if his ‘questionable’ tag entering the weekend becomes an ‘active’ designation before Saturaday at 4 p.m. ET then he figures to provide a boost to a run defense that hasn’t been at the top of the NFL’s defensive statistics this season.

And if his return can help Washington force a few more 3rd-and-6s instead of 3rd-and-2s, then that’ll help the cause greatly.

Again, this is all in an effort to put the ball in Penix’s hands. The same hands that completed passes an average of just 5.6 yards past the line of scrimmage in his NFL debut against the New York Giants in Week 16, half a yard off the lowest depth of target average by a starting quarterback in the league (Tua Tagovailoa, Miami Dolphins).

Because if Penix isn’t comfortable enough to push the ball downfield but is forced into passing downs early, then the Commanders not only gain the upper hand but begin to carve a path that leads straight toward clinching a playoff berth this weekend.

Stick with CommanderGameday and the Locked On Commanders podcast for more FREE coverage of the Washington Commanders throughout the 2024 season.

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• 5 Washington Commanders Players Listed ‘Out’ For Falcons Game