Originally Published on August 2, 2019 by Theo Douglas on Techwire.com
Sacramento’s latest urban micro-mobility deployment should help create for city officials a more nuanced picture of how residents get around — and what is and isn’t working, officials told Techwire.
Lime’s deployment Wednesday of up to 250 electric scooters around Sacramento was aimed, it said in a news release, at “providing affordable access to a sustainable, convenient mobility option.” The scooters are available around the city, with 20 percent of the fleet destined for “opportunity areas” in parts of north, south and southeast Sacramento “to ensure equitable service.” But Sacramento Chief Innovation Officer Louis Stewart said the initiative will facilitate deeper learning about scooter use and mobility itself, while preparing the city for what’s next. Among the takeaways:
• Officials hope the project will bring “huge benefits” for residents — while enabling Sacramento to “learn more about how to improve mobility for our citizens,” Stewart said, adding: “So, getting accurate data from these systems is crucial.” Clean data will enable city staff to understand when and where Lime scooters are used — and, potentially, examples from competing Bird, Lyft and Spin, all of whom have applied for city business permits. (Two to three similar deployments are likely later this month.) And it will help public and private sectors work together to shift scooters strategically where they could be best utilized.
• Stewart and Transportation and Planning Manager Jennifer Donlon Wyant offered advice for other munis contemplating their own urban mobility partnerships. He recommended other agencies “really think people first,” noting thoughtful work by Wyant and others on her team that has helped insulate the city from a backlash against electric scooters or bicycles that some peers have faced.
“It’s one thing to just have scooters flood the market. It’s another thing to actually sit and work with the companies,” Stewart said, noting that Sacramento seeks to recover its costs from these collaborations.
Wyant recommended other agencies collect fees to create parking spaces for electric bikes, scooters or other forms of mobility — and empower parking enforcement to cite devices that block sidewalks or other public areas. Sacramento’s fee, she said, is “a direct nexus between their operations and the need for that.”
In Lime’s case, the city will fine the company $15 per device found to be blocking a sidewalk. In addition to a $4,440 business permit fee, the company is paying a 10-cent per-trip fee per device, estimated at three trips per day per device. It’s also paying a $104 annual vehicle monitoring fee per device, to cover staff time; and, in the central city, a $32 annual device fee to cover the loss of parking meter space.
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