VIDEO: TikTok-Fueled Scooter Takeover Sends Hundreds Through Downtown Minneapolis, Onto I-35W

It just seemed like a cool thing to do,"

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Hundreds of people on electric scooters and e-bikes flooded downtown Minneapolis late Saturday night after a TikTok post calling for a "scooter takeover" drew far more riders than its 20-year-old organizer expected.

Videos of the scenes were posted to social media.

Watch additional video here and here.

Johan Vargas said he hosted a smaller scooter meetup Friday night and posted videos to TikTok, which snowballed into Saturday's much larger gathering near U.S. Bank Stadium.

"I just started seeing more and more people. I don't know where half these people came from, but all of them said they saw the TikToks," Vargas told CBS Minnesota.

"I was expecting maybe like 200, not 500 to 1,000. But I mean, I'm glad everyone came out, they all had fun."

One rider who joined the group, Majenta Bloom, described the event to FOX 9 as spontaneous rather than organized.

"It wasn't super well planned or thought out or anything. It just seemed like a cool thing to do," Bloom said.

Minneapolis police said officers monitored the group as it wound through downtown and southeast Minneapolis.

"MPD monitored the group and its movements, which at times were reckless and disruptive to traffic," a department spokesperson said, adding that no arrests were made and no citations were issued.

The gathering turned more dangerous when a portion of the crowd, estimated at 200 to 300 Lime scooters by witnesses, rode onto southbound I-35W at Fourth Street around 10:40 p.m.

"Entering the freeway puts the scooter rider's life at risk, and could also result in a serious or fatal crash involving other motorists," Minnesota State Patrol Lt. Jennifer Krier said in a statement to KIMT.

"Freeways are designed for high-speed motor vehicle traffic, leaving scooter riders with little protection and drivers with very little time to react."

The State Patrol is now urging Minneapolis and scooter companies to adopt a geofencing system that would disable the devices before they can enter a freeway, a solution Krier said other metro areas already use.

The city already requires scooter and e-bike riders to wear helmets, yield to pedestrians and follow the same traffic laws as bicyclists, rules that were not followed Saturday night.

Similar large, TikTok-organized "scooter takeovers" have drawn police attention in other cities including Orlando and Houston.