A fleet of pay-as-you-go, public electric scooters in Vancouver scooched closer to reality Monday afternoon when the city council agreed it’s interested in the possibility, at least on a trial basis.
When the city’s new Mobility Commission convenes for the first time, the group’s scope will widen to consider the implications of bringing “micromobility units” to the city as an alternative mode of transportation, the council decided.
“I think we need to take a step back and look at the big picture, and think about the purpose of the program,” said Councilor Laurie Lebowsky, who has a background in city planning. “I support looking at micromobility. I support looking at e-scooters and bike shares, especially.”
Any trial program wouldn’t start until 2020 at the earliest, City Manager Eric Holmes said.
E-scooters aren’t all that new. Metros such as Portland, Spokane and Tacoma have embraced them as an alternative to single-use cars for getting around, and as a way to make it easier for commuters to get to and from public transit hubs, like bus stops.
The most popular versions are “dockless” — scooters that riders can grab or leave anywhere within a certain radius. The user appeal is in the ease, as riders don’t need to go out of their way to return the scooters to a specific location.
In a workshop, the council heard from Jennifer Campos, the city’s principal transportation planner, and Rebecca Kennedy, long-range planning manager, about some of the challenges and benefits other communities have encountered while serving as e-scooter guinea pigs.
“Now we have a really good understanding of what our options are,” Campos said.
In the model that’s emerged over the last couple of years, cities are partnering with private transportation companies such as Lyft, Lime or Spin to hammer out an agreement that lets the company earn a profit on rider fees and the city set the terms on how and where the scooters can be used.
The best agreements ensure that user fees cover the full cost of administering the program, Campos said. They also require the private companies to keep the vehicles in safe operating condition, with the stipulation that any damaged or improperly placed units are removed within an agreed-upon time frame — often within an hour or two.
Good contracts also ensure that the city can keep scooters out of unwanted areas, like riding on sidewalks or in parks, Campos said.
“It’s really up to the city to determine how we’re going to regulate that and manage that,” she added.
Kennedy said the major challenges associated with a fleet of e-scooters comes down to rider safety, parking infrastructure and administration.
While safety of scooter riders and the people around them is a concern, the limited data so far show that scooters are actually safer than bicycles or vehicles, Kennedy said — eight people died on e-scooters last year compared with roughly 40,000 in automobile crashes.
How to handle parking can also be a headache, Kennedy said. Other cities have struggled with errant dockless units violating ADA regulations.
“In terms of parking infrastructure, the biggest one is people parking on sidewalks and blocking the right of way,” Kennedy said.
But managing the program may prove most challenging, Kennedy said. If the council chooses to deploy e-scooters, the city would not only need to enforce rider rules but manage an enormous cache of user data. Storing scores of information about individual rider habits poses a major privacy concern.
However, other communities have seen the benefits outweigh the challenges, electing to expand limited e-scooter trial periods into permanent citywide fixtures.
Warming to the idea
The motorized units are especially popular for recreational trips, and for commuters who would otherwise live or work too far away to take advantage of public transportation options. They’re useful for getting to and from bus stops or subway stations — “first mile, last mile” transport, Kennedy said.
“It’s certainly a new form of mass transportation option,” she added.
The council’s decision to move forward with the proposal at Monday’s workshop marked a culmination of a slow, steady thaw from the group toward the idea of personalized electric transportation.
During a retreat in March, the group flatly rejected the idea when Holmes broached the subject. At the time, Councilor Ty Stober said his friends in Portland had been “ready to start throwing (the scooters) into the river.”
“I don’t want them on my sidewalks, and I don’t want them on my streets,” Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle said.
But since a trip to Denver in May, where city councilors toured the Colorado metro and saw the scooters in action, they’ve warmed to the idea.
Still, major concerns linger.
“We have an aging population that I don’t know would do really all that well on these things,” Councilor Bill Turlay said.
Fellow Councilor Erik Paulsen said he’s especially worried about the long-term cost of managing a micromobility program in a midsize town without the resources of a major metro.
“In particular, (I’m) interested in the administration piece. I hear dollar signs,” Paulsen said. “Scale matters in terms of those administrative costs, and we’re a modestly sized community.”
