DEPARTMENT: Center City Development and Operations
DEPARTMENT HEAD: John Jacks
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: City-wide
SUBJECT:
Public hearing on the proposed dockless vehicle ordinance.
SUMMARY:
This is a Public Hearing to gather community input on the proposed dockless vehicle ordinance.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Center City Development and Operations provided a high level briefing on dockless vehicles at the January Transportation Council Committee meeting. This briefing provided an overview of the emerging industry, focused primarily on dockless bicycles which had been introduced in Dallas, Seattle, and elsewhere. Since then, dockless scooters have overtaken dockless bikes as most common type of vehicle in the rapidly growing dockless industry. Dockless vehicles are a new transportation mode that includes GPS enabled bicycles, electric assisted bicycles, or electric scooters. They are introduced by private companies who place the vehicles in the city's right of way so they can be used by subscribers through a phone application.
On June 22nd, the company Bird deployed a fleet of dockless scooters in San Antonio. Following Bird's entrance to the market, Lime also launched a fleet of dockless scooters on July 25th. These companies have grown their fleets since implementation. Bird has shared that their current fleet consists of approx. 400 scooters and Lime has approx. 345. Trip data provided by these firms shows that over 100,000 trips have occurred. In addition to Lime and Bird, five other companies have expressed interest in operating in San Antonio.
On August 20th, CCDO shared an overview of proposed regulations for dockless vehicles with the Transportation Committee. To obtain community input to inform the proposed regulations, a public meeting was held at the Central Library on July 31st and an online survey has been initiated with over 2,000 survey respondents. A B Session briefing focused on the proposed regulations will be presented on...
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