City Council Extends Shared Mobility Pilot and Sets Goals for Second Pilot
November 13, 2019 9:35 AM
SANTA MONICA, Calif. – At its meeting last night, the Santa Monica City Council voted to extend Santa Monica’s Shared Mobility Pilot Program, which has enabled 2,673,819 trips on e-scooters and e-bikes over the last year, half of which replaced car trips. The extension through May 2020 will pave the way for a second pilot program with intensified regulations that facilitates greater customer reliability and affordability, and more effectively achieves safety and public outcomes. Council directed staff to come back in early 2020 with a second pilot that advances the following goals:
- Improve safe riding with a focus on sidewalk safety and develop systems that manage user behavior when operating and parking devices.
- Offer and increase utilization of income-qualified reduced rate programs to ensure that shared mobility remains an accessible transportation option for all community members.
- Increase efforts to incentivize the use of designated parking zones and penalize users who park devices illegally.
- Ensures fees generated continue to support infrastructure projects that improve bike and scooter safety.
“Scooters and e-bikes are undoubtedly popular and user data tells us people are riding them instead of hopping in a car,” said Mayor Gleam Davis. “These shared micro mobility devices have aided in advancing our mobility, sustainability, and wellbeing goals, but there’s still work to refine regulations, improve safe use, and incentivize equitable access for people of all incomes. Working with micro mobility companies in a cooperative manner will allow us to make further progress as the technology and the industry evolves.”
For the second pilot, Council expressed openness to reducing the number of operators. They also discussed improving the model for the public to report issues to scooter companies, focusing parking drop zones in the street, and exploring viability of a re-envisioned Breeze Bike Share Program.
Council will vote on the second pilot in early 2020 with implementation in the spring.
For more information on how e-bikes and scooters were used over the last year, read a summary report. For pilot program details, visit smgov.net/sharedmobility.
More Information
Shared Mobility Pilot Program Summary Report >
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Media Contact
Constance Farrell
Communications & Public Information Manager
Constance.Farrell@santamonica.gov