Accessibility compliance, sidewalk use and safety rank among the top concerns with regard to electric bike and scooters, according to attendees of a Dockless Mobility Update hosted by the Downtown Austin Alliance on Thursday. Representatives from the Austin Transportation Department presented their plans to address these concerns as well as to expand dockless mobility options. Employees of Jump Bikes and scooter companies Lime and Bird were also present and answered questions.
Disruption
Following the authorization of a dockless mobility program by Austin City Council on April 27, the city enacted a set of emergency rules on May 7. Shortly thereafter, dockless mobility companies received licensure to operate within a designated downtown zone, a 33-square-mile area roughly bordered by MoPac, Oltorf Street, Chicon Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard. According to Laura Dierenfield, Active Transporation Division Manager for ATD, there are now seven licensed dockless mobility operators in Austin and more than 3,600 units in use. The update meeting was part of a public engagement process intended to inform a final set of dockless mobility regulations to be adopted by City Council this fall. The city has also created a community survey, open through Aug. 31, to collect feedback from residents and stakeholders. So far, it has garnered more than 4,000 responses, which Transportation Department spokesperson Marissa Monroy called "insane" in terms of participation.
Accessibility
Many attendees of the update meeting were members of the local disability community. Electric bikes and scooters, they said, make sidewalks unsafe for and sometimes inaccessible to wheelchair users and others with disabilities. City staff and company representatives acknowledged the problem and said they were working together to address it. Private companies are legally required to respond to accessibility violations caused by their dockless mobility vehicles within four hours of being notified of an issue. City staff encouraged residents to call Austin 311 if they observe any violations. "This is my number one concern," a spokesperson for Bird said at the meeting. The company, he said, is hiring a team of "Bird watchers" to help ensure that users comply with accessibility requirements and rectify violations quickly. The team will help break up "nests"—or groups of unused scooters left around town.
