Council asked to consider ridership, access goals in revising e-scooter rules

The Urban Transportation Commission wants the city to rework some of its recent regulations of e-scooters and other micromobility devices but stopped short of spelling out what changes should be made.

At its meeting this week, the commission approved a revised recommendation – crafted largely by Commissioner Spencer Schumacher – that cut several pages of text regarding the number of scooter vendors allowed to operate in the city, the total number of micromobility devices in operation downtown and elsewhere and changes to maximum speeds the devices are allowed to travel. The revised recommendation, which is expected to go before City Council this month, hangs mostly on emphasizing the need for the city to make sure newer regulations for e-scooter vendors are made in line with the Austin Strategic Mobility Plan’s goals of increasing the availability and usage of the devices throughout the city.

Following a presentation from Transportation and Public Works Department staff on recent updates to rules governing micromobility devices, the commission discussed how precise its recommendation to Council should be, while signaling a desire for more data and public input on the need for greater regulations.

Richard Mendoza, director of the department, said he was acting in the name of public safety when he instituted changes to limit the speed of the devices and prohibit e-bikes that can block rights of way for pedestrians or vehicles when improperly parked.

“This is first and foremost a matter of public safety, also protecting (disability) access around our city and then just also the general appearance where these things seem to be congregating in greater numbers,” he said. “My commitment to the vendors is to work with them and also with Council Member (Zo) Qadri’s office, whose district encompasses a great use of these devices, to arrive at a place where we can put in these regulations and gauge and collect data on the effectiveness to have an improved quality of service after six months.”

Schumacher explained his experience in transit issues and his work interacting with vendors and other stakeholders to arrive at the specific actions included in the original draft.

“These are just recommendations that I thought got us to those (ASMP) goals, and I think I would defend any of these as getting us to those goals,” he said, pointing out that City Council members had indicated the May 30 meeting as likely the last time to consider the scooter safety issue for perhaps several months. “These were not arbitrary recommendations I made. … A lot of these are pulled from how the director’s rules are laid out. A lot of these are pulled from (National Association of City Transportation) officials. A lot of these are pulled from how other cities have approached this.”

Commissioner Daniel Kavelman said many of the prescriptive steps included in the draft motion represented decisions that city staff should make following needed community feedback sessions.

Chair Susan Somers said the commission can revisit any of the items removed from the recommendation prior to its passage without worrying about City Council’s schedule on the matter.

“Things happen at Council, and they feel like emergencies. Maybe there are emergencies, but we exist regardless of that and we can pass recommendations regardless of that on our own time frame whenever we see fit,” she said. “We want to help Council, which is part of our role, obviously. … Sometimes we just need to season things more, and that’s kind of how life is.”

Photo by Luis Tamayo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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