The demand for the e-scooters is there, Cruz mentioned, however rising the ridership will rely upon transit officers understanding small kinks with the program.
“We’re a transit desert—not everyone owns a vehicle so this is just one more option to get folks to the bus or train,” Cruz mentioned. “The ridership is there. It is just going to take some growing pains—sharing the roadway takes some getting used to for motorists and pedestrians.”
For many residents, Cruz mentioned, security was the prime concern going into the program. That was additionally a prevailing fear amongst state and metropolis policymakers who for years wouldn’t legalize electrical scooters and bikes on New York streets. It was not till 2020—when the pandemic modified the equation on micromobility—that the state Legislature opened the door to the final main untapped marketplace for electrical scooters and bikes, and the metropolis adopted go well with.
Rodriguez credit the DOT with baking security options into contractual and operational necessities for the pilot’s three e-scooter operators. For occasion, the metropolis requires in-app coaching and a “beginner mode” that restricts riders’ first three journeys to a ten mph pace restrict, and they can not begin the preliminary rides in the in a single day hours. The metropolis is rolling out new protected bike lanes to the space, a’lthough that has been sluggish going.
Tiffany-Ann Taylor, vp of transportation at the Regional Plan Association, mentioned she’s happy that the metropolis has centered its pilot program on the Bronx. Increasing connectivity in the outer boroughs is the key to bettering transit fairness in the metropolis, she mentioned. She hopes e-scooters will develop into one other device in the metropolis’s arsenal for assembly New Yorkers’ transit wants, she mentioned.
“Introducing new technology to neighborhoods is always great, but we should also continue to balance what the needs of the demographics actually are,” Taylor mentioned. “I don’t necessarily think that everybody wants to ride a scooter, just like not everybody wants to ride a bicycle, or that the scooter or bicycle may not be accessible to everyone, given different mobility challenges.”
To that finish, a complete micromobility plan, just like the metropolis’s streets grasp plan, might assist officers chart the place e-scooters can be simplest, standardize a few of the wonky particulars of how they function and assist educate New Yorkers on easy methods to experience.
“What does that look like in various parts of the city where the sidewalk widths are different or where some neighborhoods have protected bike lanes and some don’t? How do these vehicles interact with trucks? Do you want to register them?” Taylor mentioned. “I think clarity about those types of things would be really helpful in the city adopting micromobility technology and figuring out where it makes the most sense.”