Electric scooters are coming to city, and Albany’s Traffic Safety Commission, desires town to make sure they’re protected and accessible for everybody.
The preliminary fleet, a minimum of 50 scooters, from Bird Ride Inc. might be a part of a 12-month pilot program that’s set to start out round Albany in the approaching weeks. Company officers say they are going to tweak the variety of scooters to fulfill market calls for.
Riders 18 and older will activate their e-scooter utilizing a smartphone app to cruise pre-programmed routes at the price of 40 cents per minute.
Each e-scooter will include educational materials riders should watch by means of the Bird app. All e-scooter riders should not ride in opposition to visitors and will not ride beneath the affect.
While the scooters will not come outfitted with helmets, that are required by regulation to be worn, the corporate will present helmets without spending a dime, plus a delivery free, if ordered by means of the app, in line with a Bird consultant in correspondence with town.
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Among the problems raised on the fee’s assembly on Monday, April 4, was the place e-scooters can and should be ridden.
Places like Linn-Benton Community College, Commissioner Steph Nappa mentioned, could be off-limits to e-scooters as a result of the varsity prohibits bike driving in most locations. Campus guidelines additionally require bikes to be parked at bike racks and never left standing.
While it is not clear if the scooters could be thought-about bicycles, the faculty does have a rule that claims: “Foot traffic is the primary means of transportation within the internal passageways of the campus and Extended Learning centers. For safety purposes, individuals shall not use wheeled conveyances (other than disabled conveyances), such as skateboards, bikes, roller skates, roller blades, scooters, etc., at any time unless authorized by LBCC authorities.”
Other locations in Albany, Nappa mentioned, could also be ill-suited to accommodate e-scooter riders to start with.
“Do you want to go up into North Albany and have scooters going back and forth on the bridge, especially the southbound lane, where there’s no specific bike lanes?” Nappa mentioned.
Nappa mentioned town must preserve riders out of conditions the place their scooters might brush in opposition to vehicles hurtling down busy highways.
“I don’t think Highway 99 is a safe place to ride a scooter,” Nappa mentioned. “I guarantee people will be riding them on the sidewalks because they would not feel comfortable riding in the bike lane next to cars and trucks and semis traveling 55 miles an hour.”
Albany Transportation Systems Analyst Ron Irish raised the prospect of what he known as a “geo bridge” or a digital guard rail which might information riders round harmful areas like highways.
“Say you’re riding from Heritage Mall to downtown,” Irish mentioned. “If you were coming across on Queen crossing at 99, you can cross, but you can’t turn left or right on 99.”
One fear Nappa didn’t have was the opportunity of e-scooters hogging up downtown parking areas.
Nappa, a transportation planner on the Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments, cited a 2020 examine the commissioned which discovered some 40% of parking areas in Downtown Albany have been in use on any given day.
“There’s more than enough space to take the space of one car that would serve, on average, one person and making it available to a space that fits six to 10 scooters that can serve six to 10 people,” Napa mentioned. “That’s an increase in parking.”
Nappa additionally raised the problem of making certain entry to e-scooters for low-income residents citywide. That might embody mandating a minimal variety of e-scooters in sure neighborhoods.
“We’re hopeful that e-scooters will provide that first and last mile connection, which I think just by definition, would help people at the lower end of the socio-economic scale,” Albany City Manager Peter Troedsson mentioned. “But beyond that, we don’t we just don’t have the data.”
The idea of the primary and final mile refers back to the distance between somebody’s dwelling and numerous modes of transit.
Under its preliminary settlement with town of Albany, Bird will share rider information with town on the completion of the pilot program. The settlement, which could be terminated at any time with 30 days’ discover, additionally offers permits for extra e-scooters to be deployed in the longer term.
The e-scooter pilot program, in line with Irish, is on observe to start out in 1 1/2 months.
A joint assembly between town’s Traffic Safety Commission and the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission is tentatively scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 26 to debate the e-scooter pilot program, amongst different matters.