Council uncomfortable with scooters’ early arrival

Austin City Council members, with fresh memories of the fractious fight over ride-hailing in 2016, made it clear Tuesday they are uncomfortable with the sudden entry of electric rental scooters into the Austin market and city officials’ attempts to quickly address the situation.

For now, at least, the council is expected to consider on April 26 an ordinance that would attempt to patch Austin law to address the decisions by Bird Rides and LimeBike in the past two weeks to begin renting several hundred scooters. A pilot program for dockless bikes and scooters was expected to start this summer, but the two companies jumped the gun.

“I’m really distressed about how several of the companies have rolled out their product in advance of the pilot or an ordinance,” Council Member Kathie Tovo said at a meeting of the council’s Mobility Committee.

If the proposed ordinance passes, city officials indicated, the pilot program will be shelved in favor of a permit-based program that would begin about May 1.

The city’s Transportation Department impounded some scooters in the first week after Bird scooters hit the streets but quickly returned them without levying fines because officials said existing ordinances did not make it clear rental operations could not occur on city-owned sidewalks and streets.

The proposed ordinance does not contain specifics about how many bikes or scooters it would allow companies to put on the streets. It also doesn’t provide details on a $30 per device fee that Transportation Director Robert Spillar laid out in a memo Monday. When Council Member Ann Kitchen asked about the omission, Spillar asked if he could answer that question outside the meet-