December 21, 2018
Bryce Stoepfel
Reporter
After being snubbed by Lime Bike bicycles in June this year, the City of Gilroy is taking off its training wheels to try again for a rideshare alternative. This time, it’s electric scooters.
The city’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee late last month passed a draft resolution from Bird Scooter to introduce at least 200 rideshare elec- tric scooters to the city, pending approval by the Gilroy City Council.
Bird electric scooters are pay-per-mile, stand- up devices that can reach speeds of up to 20 miles per hour. Touted as a “first mile and last mile com- muter option,” (from home to public transit, then to the final destination,) Bird hopes its scooters will ease street congestion and reduce air pollution.
"We want to capitalize on our growth and pursue alternative modes of trans- portation for residents,
visitors and workers in Gilroy," said committee chairman Zach Hilton.
Bird is in its first year of operation and already has electric scooters in more than 100 cities throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and the European Union and at hundreds of col- lege campuses through- out the country, includ- ing San Jose State. Two of Bird's Bay Area markets, Oakland and San Jose, are also two of the largest. Bird's stated mission is to take cars off the road
to reduce traffic conges- tion and carbon emissions. According to Bird spokes- person Martin Fatooh, in its first year of business, Bird riders have traveled 14.3 million miles on their electric scooters, remov- ing 12.7 million pounds of carbon emissions from the air. A nearby exam- ple of Bird's environmen- tal potential is in Oakland.
"We've only been operating Oakland for four months, and I can tell you that over 74,000 pounds of carbon emis- sions have been reduced," Fatooh said.
Instances of scooter riders sowing panic on the city sidewalks have dot- ted the news throughout the year. In San Francisco, havoc wrought by scooter riders forced the city to ban electric scooters. The
ban was lifted in October after safety and parking concerns were resolved.
A draft resolution passed by Gilroy’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee on Nov. 27 stated that scooter riders must use the streets and bike lanes when possible. Parking regulations, which became a major issue in San Francisco, require rid- ers to park their scooters upright near bike racks,
designated Bird park- ing spots or next to an unmarked curb.
Scooters cannot block entrances, bus stops, benches, fire hydrants, call boxes, utility poles or areas designated for pedestrians.
Addressing safety concerns, Fatooh said statistics from the Austin, Texas, Department of Emergency Services showed fewer scooter injuries compared with bicycles.
"Despite traveling nearly 13 times as many miles than bicycles in Austin, there were half as many accidents from scooters than bicycles," Fathooh, who said Bird also has over 4,000 bikes in Austin.
Bird has an alert sys- tem where riders can report scooter-related safety issues directly to the company.
To get started Bird, riders are required to download an app on their smartphones, which describes safety procedures, how to ride the scooter according to the rules of the road, and parking.
Hilton said he expects the resolution to be taken up by the city council in January or February.