San Diego cracked down on electrical scooters Tuesday with sweeping new rules that prohibit sidewalk utilization, demand scooters be parked in city-painted corrals and require operators to deal with complaints about their scooters inside one hour.
City officers additionally plan to shrink the variety of scooter corporations working in San Diego to 4 subsequent month underneath a brand new allowing mannequin that will make operators extra accountable to the town for self-enforcement.
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City Council members unanimously accredited the brand new rules, which they referred to as a compromise between responding to vocal complaints about scooters whereas nonetheless permitting the gadgets to turn out to be a preferred new strategy to get round.
“We all have seen too many abuses by individuals using the scooters under the old framework — underage riders, multiple riders on a scooter, scooters dumped anywhere and everywhere,” Councilmember Joe LaCava mentioned.
Councilmember Stephen Whitburn additionally praised the brand new rules as a step in the proper path, however he warned that San Diego may have to think about an outright ban if scooter corporations and riders don’t obey them.
“I have heard from elderly residents in my district who were afraid to go for a walk for fear they would be hit on the sidewalk by a scooter,” Whitburn mentioned. “I have heard from people who have broken bones when they have tripped over a scooter left on a sidewalk.”
City officers expressed optimism that the brand new rules and extra accountable administration by scooter corporations would make a ban pointless.
In addition, Deputy City Attorney Cassandra Mougin mentioned it could possibly be legally treacherous for the town to enact a ban when state legislation permits scooters. “That’s something we’d need to really dig into and evaluate further,” Mougin mentioned.
Scooter critics, together with a grassroots group of residents referred to as Safe Walkways, praised the town’s crackdown.
“We as a group are delighted,” mentioned Jonathan Freeman, a frontrunner of Safe Walkways. “It puts into place many of the things we’ve advocated for over years.”
Freeman, nevertheless, mentioned a few of the rules don’t go fairly far sufficient. The new rules ban scooter utilization between midnight and a couple of:30 a.m., however Freeman mentioned a ban from 10 p.m. to five a.m. would extra successfully forestall drunken scooter utilization.
Officials from scooter corporations additionally praised the rules and vowed to prioritize self-enforcement.
“Spin believes accountability is key,” mentioned Spin spokesman Marshall Anderson. “These provisions before you today will help restore the public’s trust that all operators will follow the rules.”
Robert Freeman of Lime mentioned his firm already made a lot of the adjustments the town is requiring when it resumed working in San Diego final October. Scooter utilization has sharply elevated in current months after a pandemic lull.
The new rules additionally lengthen metropolis enforcement for the primary time to digital bikes, one other new type of transportation that is shortly gaining recognition — particularly within the metropolis’s city and seaside neighborhoods.
The metropolis’s most up-to-date spherical of scooter permits will expire in July, permitting the town to maneuver ahead with solely 4 operators beginning this summer time. The corporations shall be required to have a fleet together with each scooters and e-bikes.
Current corporations working in San Diego are Bird, Lime, Link, Spin, Lyft, Wheels and VeoRide. City officers mentioned they plan to announce which 4 corporations will proceed working with the town quickly.
The metropolis is shifting its working mannequin from permit-based to a request-for-proposals mannequin, which permits the town to make extra calls for of operators. The mannequin additionally shrinks the utmost variety of scooters allowed within the metropolis from 11,000 to eight,000.
The annual payment paid by every operator will enhance from $5,141 to $20,000. Operators pays 75 cents per day for every scooter — as an alternative of an annual payment of $67.50 per scooter.
Companies could be extra accountable for dangerous conduct by scooter riders and be required to offer the town extra knowledge for compliance and enforcement efforts. Geofencing, a expertise that bodily prevents scooters from going into prohibited areas, shall be key to limiting scooter mischief, metropolis officers mentioned.
The new rules cut back from three hours to 1 hour how shortly operators should reply to complaints about scooters submitted to the town’s Get it Done! tipster app. Scanning of driver’s licenses is required to stop utilization by underage riders, and every rider should learn rules relating to utilization, parking and geofencing.
Operators can now not cluster greater than 4 scooters collectively and scooters should be parked in city-painted corrals. But e-bikes and different dockless bikes can use public bike racks. Operators can also now not enhance the variety of scooters for particular occasions, reminiscent of Comic-Con.
All scooters should be labeled, in 40-point font, with decals saying “riding and parking on sidewalks are prohibited.” They additionally must have displayed, in 88-point sort, a tool identification quantity.