Pilot program for rentable scooters to be determined by the Council of Santa Rosa

The streets of Santa Rosa could soon be home to a fleet of electric scooters for rent if the city council approves a year-long pilot program at Tuesday’s meeting.

Permission would be given to a single operator and drivers would not be allowed to ride scooters on sidewalks or along roads where the speed limit exceeds 25 miles per hour, according to a plan presented by staff.

The operator could start with 50-100 scooters and offer services in downtown Santa Rosa and Railroad Square, Santa Rosa Junior College and Roseland.

Mayor Chris Rogers anticipated that councilors might make adjustments to the program that staff had been working on for over a year.

“There are these concerns from a safety and aesthetic point of view. But we can alleviate this, ”he said.

In their report, city officials wrote that the scooter program promotes Santa Rosa’s goals of reducing CO2 emissions and promoting economic development.

Scooter rental companies, including San Francisco-based Bird and Lime, are rapidly gaining ground in major U.S. cities. According to a paper from New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation, companies started growing rapidly in the fall of 2017.

The scooters were hailed as the solution to the “first and last mile” problem of local public transport – the idea that more people would use trains like SMART or city buses if they had a convenient way to get from train stations to their final destinations.

Scooters that pollute sidewalks and were thrown into bodies of water in a large number of cities in some cities presented companies with challenges early on.

The scooters are often rented through an app on a smartphone, but the staff proposal in Santa Rosa requires the operator to develop a payment method that does not require a cell phone or credit card. For example, Lime has developed a program called Lime Access that enables cash payments at the CVS or 7-11 convenience store franchises. The program requires an online application.

Cities and scooter companies have tried to move the parked scooters off the sidewalks by developing designated stations and parking lots. The proposal by the Santa Rosa staff is that scooters must be attached to a bike rack or other fixed object and that scooter users must leave a clear path on sidewalks.

The city’s proposal places much of the compliance burden on the operator and requires the company to have a way to contact customers about misplaced scooters.

You can reach Staff Writer Andrew Graham at 707-526-8667 or [email protected]. On Twitter @ AndrewGraham88