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Electric GPS-enabled scooter and bicycle rental companies like
Bird, LimeBike, Spin and Jump Bike (acquired by Uber) are spreading across major
U.S. cities like San Francisco, San Diego, Austin, and Washington,
DC, driven by an influx of investment from venture capital focused
on innovative mobility ideas. They are met with enthusiasm by some
riders who can easily find a scooter or bike using an app on their
phone, unlock it by scanning a code on the handle, and off they go.
Cities and municipalities, however, are cautious to embrace the new
technology (sound familiar?), citing a host of problems, including
pedestrian injuries, people riding on sidewalks, riders not wearing
helmets and unused scooters blocking walkways and critical access
to curb space.
Some municipalities believe that these companies are so focused
on growth that they are not paying enough attention to identifying
solutions to the problems that arise from scooters that can hit
speeds up to 15 mph and share sidewalks where people on foot and in
wheelchairs usually travel. Aaron Peskin, an elected official from San
Francisco’s Board of Supervisors has received thousands of
complaints from frustrated residents. Responding to an angry
coalitions of neighborhood, senior, disability, and pedestrian
groups, city officials are forced to react quickly. San
Francisco's legislative body has already met to discuss a bill
to give the city authority to remove shared scooters without
permits or parked in the public right-of-way, penalizing the
companies that own them and as of last month, its board of
supervisors passed a bill requiring e-scooter rental
companies to get city permits (since companies like Bird and
LimeBike technically do not need business licenses under current
city ordinances) to provide battery-powered scooters. The
transportation department in Austin also presented city lawmakers
with its own plans to regulate scooters.
City governments' latest effort to balance the promotion of
accessible transportation that could reduce traffic and CO2
emissions, on the one hand, with a general concern for public
welfare and safety, on the other hand, is reminiscent of the
conflict we saw between cities and ride-hailing startups like Uber and Lyft. Like its e-scooter counterparts,
Uber also took a "launch first, ask questions later"
approach to the initial rollout of its services and clashed with
officials in its hometown and practically every other city it
charged into. Like their ride-hailing predecessors, motorized
scooter companies are now in the fold challenging regulators. They
have the tough task of determining how private companies and their
customers can use their streets without generating ill effects for
the rest of the population.
Regulatory issues surrounding the mobility space (from scooters
to the self-driving automobiles we normally write about) are a
novel and now constant focus of government officials at all levels
around the globe, and it appears it will remain that way for some
time as investment and innovation continues at a rapid pace in the
mobility space.
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