Scooters And One Wheels

The place must you journey an e-scooter in Albany? Fee mulls | Native

Electric scooters are coming to town, and Albany’s Traffic Safety Commission wants the city to ensure they’re safe and accessible for everyone.

The initial fleet, at least 50 scooters, from Bird Ride Inc. will be part of a 12-month pilot program that is set to start around Albany in the coming weeks. Company officials say they will tweak the number of scooters to meet market demands.

Riders 18 and older will activate their e-scooter using a smartphone app to cruise pre-programmed routes at the cost of 40 cents per minute.

Each e-scooter will come with instructional material riders must watch through the Bird app. All e-scooter riders must not ride against traffic and may not ride under the influence.

While the scooters won’t come outfitted with helmets, which are required by law to be worn, the company will provide helmets for free, plus a shipping free, if ordered through the app, according to a Bird representative in correspondence with the city.

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Among the issues raised at the commission’s meeting on Monday, April 4, was where e-scooters can and should be ridden.

Places like Linn-Benton Community College, Commissioner Steph Nappa said, would be off-limits to e-scooters because the school prohibits bike riding in most places. Campus rules also require bikes to be parked at bike racks and not left standing.

While it’s not clear if the scooters would be considered bicycles, the college does have a rule that says: “Foot traffic is the primary means of transportation within the internal passageways of the campus and Extended Learning centers. For safety purposes, individuals shall not use wheeled conveyances (other than disabled conveyances), such as skateboards, bikes, roller skates, roller blades, scooters, etc., at any time unless authorized by LBCC authorities.”

Other places in Albany, Nappa said, may be ill-suited to accommodate e-scooter riders to begin with.

“Do you want to go up into North Albany and have scooters going back and forth on the bridge, especially the southbound lane, where there’s no specific bike lanes?” Napa said.

Nappa said the city needs to keep riders out of situations where their scooters could brush against cars hurtling down busy highways.

“I don’t think Highway 99 is a safe place to ride a scooter,” Nappa said. “I guarantee people will be riding them on the sidewalks because they would not feel comfortable riding in the bike lane next to cars and trucks and semis traveling 55 miles an hour.”

Albany Transportation Systems Analyst Ron Irish raised the prospect of what he referred to as a “geo bridge” or a virtual guard rail which could guide riders around dangerous areas like highways.

“Say you’re riding from Heritage Mall to downtown,” Irish said. “If you were coming across on Queen crossing at 99, you can cross, but you can’t turn left or right on 99.”

One worry Nappa did not have was the possibility of e-scooters hogging up downtown parking spaces.

Nappa, a transportation planner at the Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments, cited a 2020 study the commissioned which found some 40% of parking spaces in Downtown Albany were in use on any given day.

“There’s more than enough space to take the space of one car that would serve, on average, one person and making it available to a space that fits six to 10 scooters that can serve six to 10 people,” Napa said. “That’s an increase in parking.”

Nappa also raised the issue of ensuring access to e-scooters for low-income residents citywide. That could include mandating a minimum number of e-scooters in certain neighborhoods.

“We’re hopeful that e-scooters will provide that first and last mile connection, which I think just by definition, would help people at the lower end of the socio-economic scale,” Albany City Manager Peter Troedsson said. “But beyond that, we don’t we just don’t have the data.”

The concept of the first and last mile refers to the distance between someone’s home and various modes of transit.

Under its preliminary agreement with the city of Albany, Bird will share rider data with the city at the completion of the pilot program. The agreement, which can be terminated at any time with 30 days’ notice, also allows for more e-scooters to be deployed in the future.

The e-scooter pilot program, according to Irish, is on track to start in 1 1/2 months.

A joint meeting between the city’s Traffic Safety Commission and the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission is tentatively scheduled for 7 pm Tuesday, April 26 to discuss the e-scooter pilot program, among other topics.

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