Council temporarily bans motorized scooters
City measure targets electric scooter and bike share companies
SANTA CLARA » Motorized electric scooter and bike share companies will be temporarily banned in Santa Clara while the city figures out how to regulate the scooters, the City Council unanimously decided Tuesday night.
The council had already imposed a 45-day scooter ban on Dec. 20, after receiving an email from Bird Rides indicating the company would deploy scooters on city streets in the near future. Now, the ban will remain in effect until Dec. 19.
People can still ride scooters into Santa Clara from elsewhere but can’t initiate a new ride within city limits.
City Attorney Brian Doyle said riders won’t be penalized for riding motorized scooters.
“It doesn’t prohibit personal riding, it prohibits the business from placing them in Santa Clara,” Doyle said. “The whole idea of a moratorium is, please don’t start a business in Santa Clara until we figure out how we want to regulate it.”
Companies that fail to retrieve scooters could have the scooters impounded and be forced to pay penalty fees, although the amounts have not been set yet. Scooters that haven’t been claimed within 30 days could be disposed of, according to the temporary ban ordinance.
“I know we have gotten off to a confused start — but we want to be a long-term community partner,” Martin Fatooh, a government partnership representative for Bird, told the council.
Fatooh said the company sent teams to sweep Santa Clara for abandoned scooters during the National College Football Champions earlier this month and has
an “incentivized bounty” on retrieving any scooters parked in Santa Clara to avoid them accumulating.
Council member Karen Hardy suggested moving up the moratorium’s expiration date to June so residents can use the popular scooters earlier.
City Manager Deanna Santana said staff will return on Jan. 29 with a timeline for developing and implementing the regulations, and noted staff is busy with a number of other council requests, including attempts to renegotiate the city’s trash contracts and issuing bids for operating the convention center.
“It’s not going to take a year, we’re looking for four to six months,” Santana said.
Dockless, motorized scooters have appeared in cities across the Bay Area, often without much advance warning. Unlike many bike share programs that require users to park bikes at designated racks, scooter users can download an app, scan a bar code with their phone to pay for the scooter, and abandon the scooters anywhere.
The scooters have become popular alternatives to bikes and often are used to get to transit stations, but have also generated complaints about reckless riders, collisions and blocking sidewalks and streets.
San Francisco imposed a temporary ban in June 2018, until awarding permits to two companies, Scoot and Skip; it allowed scooters back on the streets in October.
In September, Oakland approved regulations that require scooter companies to get permits, give discounts to low-income residents, distribute the scooters to neighborhoods with transportation needs and retrieve scooters that block wheelchair ramps and doorways.
San Jose passed similar regulations in December.
According to city staff, Bird Rides emailed Mayor Lisa Gillmor’s office on Dec. 12 expressing interest in operating in Santa Clara, and after not receiving a response, followed up with an email on Dec. 14 saying it was the company’s “last attempt” to contact the city before launching its scooter program.
Santa Clara officials have since met with Bird representatives, and will be meeting with Lime and other scooter vendors later this week, Santana said.
Fatooh did not answer other questions about the company’s plans in Santa Clara, referring to an emailed statement from the company.
“Bird has been having ongoing, productive conversations with Santa Clara city officials, and we are encouraged by the progress we have made thus far,” according to the statement.