tv Government Access Programming SFGTV June 4, 2018 8:00am-9:00am PDT
8:09 am
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.ee 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.
8:10 am
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 takingr 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 toge around within san francisco. we see the scooter system as something that could contribute to this ability.
8:11 am
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 int 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 seng 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 -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.
8:12 am
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
8:13 am
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.
8:14 am
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 t requirement for a scooter sharing program to be permitted by the mt and thereertain 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 thatre w' working really hard on developing both the
8:15 am
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 apermit, we expect you to sign terms and conditions that will include all of these requents. that's what we're wking 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,
8:16 am
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
8:17 am
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 opportuny to evaluate the new transportation system and see whether it meets our goals for having a tportatn 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
8:18 am
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, t 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
8:19 am
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.
8:20 am
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 tt anere'thrash cans or tes 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 wh 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
8:21 am
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 thecrosalk. 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
8:22 am
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
8:23 am
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 aboutwe c how 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.
8:24 am
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 quise ick r 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.
8:25 am
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 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
8:26 am
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
8:27 am
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 thetreets 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 coalitio 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
8:28 am
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.
8:29 am
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 f the shared streets world advocacy. i was a writer for la streets blog and worked as an associate director for the non-profit that publis the san francisco streets blog.
8:30 am
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 bri about where we're at with bird, we're moving forward withg mine 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
8:31 am
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 b 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 inhis t erev owned a car in my life and i appreciate flourishing
8:32 am
8:33 am
8:34 am
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 actoro 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.
8:36 am
>> 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,
8:37 am
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 documenting citations of the vehicle parked improperly. it would be up to them to decide to follow up with the user, or
8:38 am
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 her oethe 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 permit, because i don't see that. >> first of all, based on that repeat infractions, we wouldn't say, oh, your permit is revoked tomorrow, we'd say we need to see this improvement in this amount of time. but we're also thinking about and asking the companies to
8:39 am
provide information about this in their applications, what would those steps be, or what would you want to do if we're finding that this isn't working out. so one possible outcome, we find that none of the companies are able to get users to park properly and we need to institute a dock or specific parking infrastructure, or ask the companies to attach some kind of locking mechanism, so you have to lock it to the fixed object the way the jump bikes do. there are certain things we're looking at and we're asking the companies to be innovative and how they are recommending that stepped up level of sort of approaching those circumstances. >> i have a follow-up. >> council member mcdonald: do i understand that the mts will not be issuing citations for improperly parked? >> we will. but we go out there, see a lime
8:40 am
scooter and issue citation to the company. what i was trying to say -- not to the customer. >> council member mcdonald: right, you wouldn't know who it was. >> and we can not issue citations for sidewalk riding, that is police. >> co-chair blacksten: anyone else on the council? >> i'd like to make a comment. who is this? orkid? sure. >> council member sassouni: it's interesting in terms of companies this morning, i saw a scooter in golden gate park, just left there, and you know, in the middle of nowhere, and two people were approaching in one direction and as i pass, one of them tripped over the scooter left in the pathway. and yesterday i saw kids playing on the sidewalk with the scooter, just playing with it. and it was r.m. too late to --
8:41 am
really too late to stop anything from happening, they were thrilled and it was a very person street. as a deaf person, i'm sensitive to people passing me from behind quickly, or around a corner and there is no regulations or laws in terms of their behavior. it's kind of a wild west show out there. and so our rights as pedestrians are protected. ius to be honest -- just to be hone'mi not a fan, i hate them. and i feel there is no way to address the concerns that we're experiencing. >> co-chair blacksten: any one of you want to address that quickly? >> i'll add the concern that you raised about children playing on the scooters, that obviously should not happen. in fact, you have to have a valid driver's license to use a
8:42 am
motorized scooter. when you sign up for the app, it requires you to scan a valid driver's license. if you don't have a valid driver's license, you can't use the scooters. i don't think that was our scooters, that's not possible. >> yeah, they were playing with it, didn't mean it was going. >> ye, they were using it unnecessarily. all right. any more comments from the council. helen, yes? >> council member smolinski: thank you for your presentations. this one is for sfmta, i'm curious, do you plan or are there already in place different rules for parking the scooters in residential and primary residential neighborhoods? where there aren't any fixed objects. i'll mention an example. i came out of my house the other
8:43 am
day and i saw three scooters in front of my house. it was the first time and i didn't want to have that reflex like oo, but i kind of did, i was trying to think of of the equivalent, like a newspaper kiosk, and i'm mid block, i'm curious if there is any thought to that? >> so far, we have not made particular distinctions in our recommended parking partly because we want it to be as clear as possible, so each thing a user has to think about, am i in a residential area or not? some residential areas have furniture zones with specific things and others don't and distinction might be a form factor issue, rather than having somebody decide a certain block is residential versus
8:44 am
commercial, since it is different. >> form factor? >> like we said, if there is a furnishing zone, trees lined app, then based on the physical nature, there are trees, so there is a furniture zone, you could park there, whereas a street without a furnishing zone, you wouldn't park the scooter there because there is no place to do it. rather than having somebody know if it's residential or commercial, it would be more based on what are the physical features? >> could you clarify the different zones? >> like when i say furniture? by that, i mean the part of e sidewalk that typically has fixed objects. so on any given sidewalk, you would have the property line, there is a sidewalk that goes to the curb. sometimeshere is a planting strip along the curb.
8:45 am
that we do as a city, make sure if we're placing fixed objects, whether it's a nsper kiosk or tree or trash can or bike rack, it's in a certain part of the sidewalk. we have staff at mta and public works that have very specific requirements for where those fixed objects can go. so because we already have this part of the sidewalk where fixed objects can go and those are determined for accessibility reasonings, that's the primary driving force for those. we're building our requirements to build off of those. and we are working with kevin jensen from public works and our accessible services program to come up with those. >> just quick follow-up. because i do think there is distinction between primarily residential part of the city that is west of van ness and
8:46 am
downtown and soma, i think those are very different neighborhoods. what have you seeherimary reasons that people are using the scooters? because, again, in my neighborhood, it seems like joy rides. >> well, as they're zipping down sidewalks -- i didn't know they weren't allowed on the sidewalk, i have a kid in a wheelchair, and i've got a toddler. i'm like, watch out. >> we don't know that yet. i don't think i mentioned this is pilot program. so we're definitely trying to understand that question. how are these being used? is it actually a benefit to the transportation network for just for fun? we need to figure that out, we don't have those answers, we don't have those surveys in place.
8:47 am
>> co-chair blacksten: tatiana? >> council member kostanian: i'm out in the sunset, i see a lot of scooters around. is there a central place where pele go to get the scooters? and also -- how much to rent these things? >> i'll have the companies answer renting, but it's usually a $1 per ride and 15 cents a mile. oh, 15 cents a minute. in terms of the location, it is different for the different companies an could be different when we have the permit program in place. and maybe this would get an answer to the question, but we are going to be asking the scooter companies to tell us where they plan to deploy scooters, as well as we would need to approve the service areas. so right now, i couldn't tell you for each company, it's a little different where they put them out in the mornings. and then over the course of the day, where people can park them.
8:48 am
but there is way in the scooter app for them to say, you can only park in this particular locati location, so for instance, he found a scooter in berkeley and coer appol him, you're not allowed to park in berkeley, which there is nothing for him to do. we can specify areas based on geographic positioning systems to say, if you're in a certain area, you wouldn't be allowed to lock up a bike there. so there could be the opportunity to create residential areas or other specific areas that are blocked and then also for them to say, maybe for the most part they're leaving them in soma, the downtown core, the mission, that's something the companies would propose. >> council member kostanian: when you say they're not supposed to be on the sidewalk, i've seen a lot of people on the
8:49 am
sidewalk. and they don't really look where they're going. they're just riding. >> that's a problem. >> yeah, if it's all right, i wanted to add one they think. one of the cool things about this industry, is thate data about where people are picking up riding and dropping off the scters, which i know for lime, and the others we plan to work with, so we can identify if there are issu. if we're seeing a continual parking issue in a particular residential area, we can create a message when people are lockingor unlocking a scooter. or if we want to put a red mark around an area like in berkeley, this is possible. and we want to continue to iterate throughout the pilot by looking at the data in realtime and make it collaborative with
8:50 am
mts. >> co-chair blacksten: all right. i know this subject generates a lot interest. and very intense discussi and i also know that some of my colleagues have more questions of you. so if you're able to stick around until a few minutes after the meeting, youight be able to have some collaboration with us. we want to continue dialogue wi you. we want to collaborate. and this is something that is of interest to us. please believe me. so let me go to staff. is there any staff that want to comment or ask a question? >> yes, i have a comment. first of all, on behalf of the mayor's office, thank you everyone for coming today. my comment and i think there might be a question in there,
8:51 am
too, i'm not sure. i have faith that we can educate our community appropriately and to a certain degree, we can control folks' perception and behaviors. however, we can't control things like wind and the elements. and so, one of the concerns that we've heard and i experienced myself this morning, i think maybe orkid and myself were in the same area of the park and didn't realize it. there was a scooter, the wind had pushed i in t right-of-way. and there was no way around it, except to divert quite a distance out of the way and find another path. when you're in a place like golden gate parkhat is easier to do than when you're in residential areas and the scooters fall down. i'm concerned and folks have
8:52 am
been concerned that it will dive divert, especially chair users and canesers to try to get around. although it's fantastic we're developing methods to come pick them up and get them out of the way, folks with disabilities need to get places just like everyone. and so, i guess i'm wondering what thought has been given to the elements. that's my question in there. >> sure. yeah, i think that is absolutely an important thing to consider for the mobility friday for bikes, scooters, anything you imagine. on our end i mentioned we have the ability to alerted whea sco knoot icked over, which is a huge step over, and being creative how to solve this issue. we also wind test our products, and we iterate to make sure
8:53 am
we're improving and that our kick stands and the product we're putting on the street is able to withstand the elements as much as possible. and if we still run into problems, then there are other options in figuring out if we need to explore a . you know, knowing that is out there. >> co-chair blacksten: that's great. any more questions from staff? >> yes, actually. i have some questions and suggestions. a question for the scooter company. and suggestions. as you make up for a lot of the issues that are about sidewalk riding. so do you currently have technology on your product that
8:54 am
will be able to alert you if the individual rider is actually riding where he or she is not al to ride? that's question number one. question number two, with scooters having a maximum speed of 15 miles per hour, if you have an area and if you're riding on the sidewalk, they could seriously injure someone. is there a way to regulate the speed to a safer speed accounting for the -- for that possibility of bad actors? and third, many of you talked
8:55 am
about equity. from the perspective of accessibility, there are many folks with disabilities that have smita issues. but they're not exactly ready to use a mobility device. have we thought about ways of designing products or designing some of area products to be more sort of user friendly and accommodate a wider range of your user base. so it's now a typical 20 something fast moving young kids from point a to point b. we used to have the same for bicycles. is there such a concept, or has it crossed your mind, about creating a similar trend?
8:56 am
because i think it would address a lot of the unsafe behaviors as well. >> we were just having the conversation in the office the other day, because i walk with a friend of mine, who is in her 60s, and would love to try one, but doesn't feel comfortable and would like to see a three-wheeled version. kicking around ideas. i'm not on the product side, so i'm not privy to those conversations, what is happening, but certainly, definitely, behooves us to reach as wide a group of people as possible in terms of access and mobility. as far as the speed regulation goes, we regulate all the scooters to 15 miles per hour. which is -- it's still slower than a class 2 electric bike which areechnically regulated as bikes according to the california vehicle code. the 15 mile-per-hour number was set and i'm not sur h that decision was come by.
8:57 am
but we're open to hearing other things. vereyonceedbo getting people off of sidewalks. we repeat it many times in the app. we are going to t t do more in-person ioeduc down in santa monica, we're talking to a local affiliate, the bicycle coalition about perhaps plugging our users into the adult rider program, giving them a better idea how to share the vehicle with thestreets. in santa monica, they're not allowed to ride anything on the sidewalks. >> they shouldn't be allowed either. >> in santa monica, we're dealing with the people who are it more aware oft a ts a reality, because no vehicles are allowed on the sidewalks, bicycles included. it's really about culture. and education. and you know, definitely want to very aggressively work to assure
8:58 am
that people, even if they're not using the scooters, if one day they want to use it, they're aware of the rules. >> your company has the pictures. you were requiring the users to send you a picture of where it was parked. >> we'll keep that as a record. and it allows us to know whether it was the wind that knocked it over ratr than a bad actor. i like having technology on the scooters that alerts you when they fall over. i'm going to take that back to the office. >> any thoughts about sidewalk riding? is there anything you can put in the app or product that would detect the difference between a street, a bike lane and a sidewalk?
8:59 am
>> right now, the g.p.s. is not quite -- it's not so pinpointed that they can tell if you're five feet over. so i mean, i do think part of the answer is, you know, eyes on the street. you know working with like the bird watcher program, we're trying to have our people out there who are stopping and addressing bad behavior in a face-to-face contact. it's one thing to look at the app and another thing to have someone come to you and say, hey, you're not supposed to do that. right now, i don't think the tech is specific enough to be able to determine where you're at. we do cordon off in our app as well, places where riding is strictly forbidden.
9:00 am
like on the promenade in santa monica, or other places, we put a big red mark on so people know not to ride there. but as far as the g.p.s. knows, it needs to get along further. >> co-chair blacksten: we're running tight on time. i know there are more questions. is there anymore from staff? let's go to the bridge line? >> i want to
57 Views
IN COLLECTIONS
SFGTV: San Francisco Government Television Television Archive Television Archive News Search ServiceUploaded by TV Archive on