so all these things are tied in and what we're looking at in the audiology community right now. so we talk about the importance of early intervention and detection. so whenever i give presentations throughout the city, i always ask how many people in the room have had their hearing tested and most of the times hands don't go up. but as i look around the room, i see that a lot of people are wearing glasses, so i know that people get their eyes checked regularly. but hearing tests are not regular. and that is something we want to change to if you're not treating your hearing loss at least you know what your hearing loss is. please stand by.

now we are at the break. so according to my watch, it says 2:15 or so. 2:16. please, let's be back here

ready to go by 2:30. we've got some great presentations to take place in the second half. see you at 2:30.

and then we will have the scooter sharing companies in san francisco. what i'd like to do is have the

presenters go first. when you're all concluded, we'll open it up for questions and comments. welcome to the mayor's council on disability. good afternoon, thank you very much for having me. my name is miriam. i'm in the sustainable streets division and one of the things that we do is manage the bike share system. and now we are taking over management of the scooter share systems in san francisco. when i say management, i mean developing the permit and regulatory frame work for them. we support the idea of emerging mobility, the idea that private companies may be able to provide benefits to our

transportation system through shared services or other opportunities to make connections that work with our transit existing systems, make it easier for people to get around within san francisco. we see the scooter system as something that could contribute to this ability. these scooter trips are sustainable, they're electric scooters and the potential to take away from car trips is something that we're interested in learning more about. so we do feel like it is in our interest to learn more about these programs and find out how they may or may not fit into the san francisco system. but as you may know, since the scooters have deployed in san francisco in the past few months, we've seen a lot of issues with them out on our streets. this is something new, so we're really working on figuring out what the best approach to the issues are. what we have been seeing are scooters parked improperly,

scooters being ridden on the sidewalk. riders who are using scooters for the first time may or may not know the best ways to use them, despite the in-app messaging that may be provided. and we're trying to figure out how we can find a way for the scooters to exist in san francisco, but without having the negative impacting on our streets and sidewalks. we think it is vital that sidewalks be the safest place for people in san francisco. and that it shouldn't be somewhere where you risk tripping over a scooter, where you risk being passed by a scooter, moving out at high speeds. they say they top out around 15 miles per hour and that's definitely way too fast for our sidewalks. there are existing regulations about where scooters can be parked and where scooters can be ridden. the california vehicle code specifies that scooters are not allowed on the sidewalk. they need to be ridden in the streets. a bike lane, if it's present, would be the appropriate place to ride a scooter. the california vehicle code also requires that you wear a

helmet while riding a scooter, that you have a valid driver's license, and some other things like that. locally, our public works code has regulations about where it is appropriate to leave personal property in the public right of way. and that includes not blocking the path of travel. and that's something that comes into play for a number of things that you might see on the streets. and it is applicable to the scooters. they are allowed to be parked on the sidewalk, but not in a way that blocks access. we don't currently have any regulation in place governing the existence of shared systems like the one we see. with bicycles, we've recently developed some programs like the go bikes that have docking stations and you collect the bike in the docking station and return it to another. we also have the jump bikes where you can park them anywhere that you can lock them to something. those are new systems that we've implemented, but that needed to have regulation from the city in order to provide

that frame work for mta to do that regulation. so in the case of scooters, two months ago, supervisor peskin introduced legislation to the board of supervisors to make it a violation to have a scooter share system without having a permit from the sfmta. that's now been through the process and that law goes into effect on june 4th. in the meantime, the sfmta needs to make changes to the transportation code to allow us to issue permits. that's a step i've been working closely are our board on to develop the legislation that sets in place the requirement for a scooter sharing program to be permitted by the mta. and there are certain requirements that are inside that legislation about what the fee structure would be for scooters applying for permits, where scooters can be parked, what we would like to learn from them in their applications about their service area and how they would operate and how they'll educate their users about proper use.

and then there's a third step which is for us to develop the actual permit application and permit requirements. and the director of transportation, who's the director of my agency, has the authority to make some further specifications beyond what's in the legislation. so where we are right now in the process is that we're working really hard on developing both the application, which is where the scooter companies will tell us how they plan to approach a number of aspects of their programs, and a list of requirements where they say if you are issued a permit, we expect you to sign terms and conditions that will include all of these requirements. that's what we're working on right now. there are three scooter companies currently operating in san francisco. bird, spin and line. but we have many more that are interested in applying. and so we will be taking applications within the next month or so and looking to permit some of those programs in san francisco. we have a maximum of five permits that we would be issuing.

and a total maximum of 1250 scooters that would be allowed on the streets of san francisco for the first six months and up to 2500 for the second six months. our best understanding is that right now there are around 2000 or 2500 scooters out there. so this would be taking it back a little bit for the first six months. the goals of the permit are to, of course, insure safety and access for all users of our sidewalks. so again, reiterating that if scooter companies are failing to get their users to comply with existing laws about where to park the scooters, where to ride the scooters, that's something we'd hold the companies accountable for. just like if you rented a car, you would be responsible for any illegal activities you conducted in that car. but we need to be able to say that if we're consistently seeing people riding on sidewalks after the permit goes in place, we have the authority to revoke the permit. if we're consistently seeing scooters parked in the sidewalk

in an inappropriate location, we have the authority to revoke the permit. that's the approach that we're taking, as well as providing more specific language about what that appropriate location is, which i'll talk about in just a few minutes. a few other things that we want to do through the permit, we want to promote equity. that means both making sure that there's a low income option for riders of the system, working with them on service areas that may be available to more than just sort of the typical that we've been seeing so far. the downtown core focus. sorry about that. okay, i'll use this one and just go over there. equity also is in terms of what we expect to see in their apps. they should have them in multiple languages and their website should be accessible. we also want to use this opportunity to evaluate the new transportation system and see

whether it meets our goals for having a transportation augmentation to the system. so that means that we need them to be able to provide data to us about where the scooters are being ridden. when they're left out on the streets, what the amount of usage is and also to administer surveys so we can understand what choices people are making when they take these trips. what would they have been doing if they hadn't taken the scooter. would they be taking an uber or lift or would they be walking. those are the things we're interested in learning about. as well as other aspects like are they recharging the scooters and what impacts are those activities having on the system. also, the permit is attempting to limit the burden to san francisco agencies so that to the extent that sfmta is applying staff time to administering the permit or public works suspended staff and resources impounding scooters that are parked

improperly, we need to make sure those costs are covered by the scooter companies and not by the taxpayers. that's another aspect of the permit. we have a permit fee intended to cover the cost of our staff, as well as getting reimbursed for other expenses that we incur. so the next set of slides that i have are focused on the question of where on the sidewalks the scooters are allowed to be parked. that's something we're actively working on how to specify those kinds of requirements. and it's the thing we'd be getting most interested in getting feedback from you. we want to make sure the scooter companies can be clear to their users and that we can be clear to the scooter companies about what we expect to see when we're out there on the streets. we have a few different ways we're working on to be enforcing this. the main thing is if we consistently see

failure to comply, we have grounds to revoke a permit. but we do want to be clear and we know that for some users, it's hard to understand certain aspects of those requirements. so i just want to run through some of these do's and don'ts that we are putting together. so the first one, of course, is do place your scooter in line with fixed objects outside the right of way. so that means if there's trash cans or trees or bike racks, that's what you should look for when you're first looking to place the scooter. do make sure that your scooter is parked upright. and do insure that your scooter leaves the clear space for people to walk. so not only, like in this photograph, not only does the

scooter need to be in line with things like the trash can or trees on a street, but this photo shows a scooter where somebody probably thought they were parking it well by putting it close to a trash can, but it's jutting out and it could be a tripping hazard and could be a problem. we're going to say you should not be parking your scooters anywhere at intersections or where two paths of travel meet and not in front of curb ramps getting to the crosswalk. do not park anywhere that the sidewalk is so narrow that there isn't a furnishing zone at all or that the sidewalk is narrower than six feet. don't park in landscape zones, tree wells or on parklands, planting strips. don't park against building facades, which may be used for guidance by those vision impairments. don't park -- not all of these are specifically accessibility

related. don't park near fire hydrants or hose access points or emergency exits. don't park in front of doors, driveways, ramps, stairs, handrails or other access points. don't park in bus zones or near bus zones and don't park in white loading zones or blue parking spaces. don't block amenities. so don't block pay phones or newspaper racks or trash cans. and i guess that's the last on this list. we're working on some more technical side of those details like within 5-feet of certain things and so forth. but the plain language version that we're working on to try and make it clear to people who are parking the scooters where we expect to see scooters so that people can get around safely. that's all i have in the way of slides. i'm, of course, happy to take questions. but i think we were talking about maybe giving the other folks a chance to chat first and then do all the questions together. yes, that's correct.

what we're gonna do is we'd like to hear from lime, spin and the third company you mentioned? bird, all right. so which one of you would like to go first? we'll just take all three of you. good afternoon, my name is megan colford and i am the community affairs manager for lime. thrilled to be here today, thank you so much. i've brought my notebook here and i've brought my colleague liz caesar. we're really hopeful that today can be a collaborative discussion about how we can partner. i'm really hopeful that going forward from today there's other opportunities to continue the conversation about how we can truly be an asset to the community and work with the

disability community to address any particular needs. so, i just have a few remarks and i understand that other companies are here and that this is meant to be a dialogue. but i wanted to share a few of the things that we're already doing to give you a sense of how we've approached our operations in the city so far. now understanding that there are particular concerns, we really strive to be a community-centered organization, a community-centered program. and for us, that falls into two categori categories. on the one hand, our operations. we need to make sure that having scooters on the ground, we have a quick response if there's an issue with the scooters. we need to make sure that we're educating our users on proper parking etiquette and education and safety. and we need to make sure that we do that consistently across all different populations. so a few things that we've already done to that end, we've been at the past three sunday streets with a booth that gives

out helmets and reminds folks about safety and etiquette procedures. we've also created on our scooter, it has reminders about how to park, how to ride. some of the requirements that maria mentioned. we also have in-app education reminders to the same effect. we're also really excited, we recently partnered with a community benefit district to be able to integrate with 3-1-1. so we get any issues pertaining to our scooters as quickly as possible and can respond as quickly as possible. finally on that side, we also have a new feature in our lock that alerts our team if a scooter has fallen. so we don't need to wait for someone in the community to find it and let us know. we can proactively go find that scooter and pick it back up so it doesn't create a nuisance. we're also really open to innovating. and if there are solutions that you think would be great for us to consider, we're a start up

so we move quickly. like i said, i'll take any notes and suggestions that you have. and then on the other side, the second piece that i just want to mention is that we really want to partner and have strong community engagement. so we're really proud about our strong robust community hiring program. so far, we've hired from groups like the center for employment opportunities, which helps ex offenders. i just started a conversation with downtown streets to do the same. and i see no reason why the disability community can't be part of that as well. i've already started a conversation with lighthouse about some roles that we might have in light manufacturing that we can really involve the entire community in. and so i'm hopeful that that will come to fruition. and again, i think that having an open dialogue about product innovation, about how we can make our products accessible and make versions that are usable for all people in the community is really exciting. so again, i'm thrilled to be here. i'll turn it over to the next

company. all right. we have brian from spin? hello, my name is brian. i'm the head of public policy for spin. spin is based here right in san francisco. so we want to make sure that we're doing our hometown proud by listening to the community, especially you guys. just to give you a bit more context in terms of what we've been up to, you have probably seen a lot fewer of our scooters around. that's because we're trying to do this in a very slow and phased manner. we only have, on average, about 60 scooters out on the streets every day. so that's significantly fewer than, i think, some of the other companies. since we've been doing our pilot in early march or mid march, we've been in constant dialogue not only with walk sf, san francisco bike coalition, people protected bike lanes. we've reached out to senior and disability action network. we've been trying to make sure

that we're being good community partners by listening to everyone that has concerns or questions or ideas in terms of how to make things better. we've taken a lot of the feedback to heart and we've implemented a lot of new things, such as re-stickering all of our scooters so it makes it very clear what the rules are and what the expectations are. having operated now dockless mobility services in about 50 markets across the united states, we're bringing our operational know how to our hometown. and so whenever we get a report that we receive about a misparked scooter or a scooter obstructing the right of way, we dispatch our operations team as quickly as possible. and so that's something that we are already doing in san francisco. and i'm sure that's going to be a requirement for san francisco's permit. we met with dpw as well as this. please contact us. we don't want to put the onus

on the public. we're all ears if you have concerns or questions for us. thank you very much. thank you very much, appreciate that. and our third -- well, actually fourth speaker in this series, carl hanson with bird? good afternoon, my name is jason. carl is still in la. i got here by the skin of my nose. my flight was cancelled and then delayed. any way, i'm happy i made it. i'm glad to be here. mostly because i'm here to listen to you to hear how we

can improve our services for the community. i personally come from the shared streets world advocacy. i was a writer for la streets blog and worked as an associate director for the non-profit that publishes the san francisco streets blog. i'm steeped in the importance of shared streets issues and now we need to make sure mobility is ak eszable to people of all means and abilities. so very briefly about where we're at with bird, we're moving forward with being more aggressive on user education. we're in the process of designing an in-app video that all new users will be required to watch when they sign up that clearly illustrates where to ride, how to park. now we have a live feature in-app where users are required

to photograph how they've parked their scooter at the end of their ride. and they will not be able to end the ride without that photograph. and this is there to help us keep a record of user behavior. if somebody's following the rules and that scooter gets messed up later on, we don't want to punish those users, but we want to make sure if somebody is not operating our scooter ins -- scooters in good faith, that we have a record of it. we can address that with education and a warning and follow up with escalating action, suspension of account and even cancellation of account if the user continues to be a bad actor. as you know, we've had the bird watcher program out here where we've had people in the streets, physically in the streets talking to users, address i addressing behaviors, problem

behaviors. reminding people where they need to ride, how to park, etc. we've been speaking with sf walks and open to collaboration with all members of the community to hear their concerns and how we can improve our service. i'm a true believer in this. i never owned a car in my life and i appreciate flourishing mobility modes, so long as they serve the community. thank you for your time. all right. i want to thank each one of the four presenters for coming to us, so stay where you are. i'm going to now open it up to my colleagues here on the council. okay, alex is first.

are you guys doing any follow ups for those accounts or consumers that doesn't abide by those laws or policies that

you guys do require them to do. hi, megan with lime again. so, the question is about how customers, how we're following up with bad actors? yes, and possibly can you tell us any protocol that you guys do insuring that those consumers are following up. sure, absolutely. feel free, we can all share the space if you guys want to come up as well. similar to what brian mentioned, we have the ability to see what users have done. i mean, the cool thing about all of this technology is that we can really identify a particular user that was a bad

actor to that sort of thing. i think that in terms of protocol, other than if we see a repeat offender, we'll block that. that's kind of the protocol that we have in place.

>> we're trying to implement the full suite of carrots first. part and parcel, we have been setting out on the streets, literally all day, every day to help educate users. we've been passing out flyers and posting flyers in our focus area of soma that statement all of the riding -- state all of the riding rules, including the parking rules that we've been

talking about. open to suggestions. one thing that i mentioned, if anyone spot is in need of relocation, it's really easy to get in touch with the customer support. we have a number, e-mail address, you can tweet us, facebook message us. whatever the mechanism may be, if you let us know, we'll respond accordingly. >> co-chair blacksten: alex, we need to move on. make it quick. >> council member madrid: this is pretty much for sfmta possibly give those individual ticket or what possible will you

do? >> for the mta, we would not issue individual citations to the users, we would be documenting citations of the vehicle parked improperly. it would be up to them to decide to follow up with the user, or not, but we'll be tracking the amount of citations and the amount of tickets. we'll be tracking those. >> co-chair blacksten: any other colleagues here on the council? sally? >> council member mcdonald: you say you could pull their permit, and that seems drastic. and i wonder if there is anything in between, any kind of deterrent in between yanking the