During the 04/07/2021 Common Council meeting, the Common Council voted to approve a “Memorandum of Understanding with Bird Rides, Inc to initiate a Dockless, Stand-up Electric Scooter Pilot Program for 2021”.
You can read the full MOU here:
The one change they made was an amendment made by Alderperson Brad Firkus (District 3). He moved to amend section 5.4.2 to read “Electric scooters may not be operated on the sidewalks on College Avenue between Drew Street and Badger Avenue”.
Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) spoke anecdotally regarding his experience with electric scooter rideshare programs. They’re in lots of places–Nashville, Austin, Memphis, St. Louis, and elsewhere. Typically, when he and his family have used them, they are traversing large distances and are using many thoroughfares. More often than not they were traversing on sidewalks where the population was well aware of their presence and adjusted to it. [Note: I don’t know what scooter rideshare programs he used but Bird, Inc specifically states on their website that users should stick to bike lanes, not sidewalks.]
Alderperson Schultz went on to say that when we get into this pilot program in Appleton, there will be a long period of adjustment to the use of these vehicles and their interactions with pedestrians, bicycles, and autos. He was concerned that by forbidding their use along College Avenue sidewalks, they would be forcing individuals to move into the street and navigate in the bike lanes with vehicles which he thought would potentially be a more dangerous situation than building up community awareness and allowing them to travel on the College Avenue sidewalk.
He said that we thankfully have some really wide sidewalks, and, while he understood the concerns about pedestrian safety and having a lot of outdoor dining on the sidewalk space, his experience using scooters led him to believe scooter riders are aware of what they’re doing on the sidewalks and what’s going on around them. He didn’t have a concern about them being used on the sidewalks. He was more concerned about having to force them into the street where they would interact with vehicles.
He opposed the amendment and suggested that it would create a more dangerous situation. He encouraged the city to do some significant public awareness about the use of them on sidewalks vs restricting them from the sidewalks on college.
Alderperson Nate Wolff (District 12) said he received a lot of feedback on this issue. Everyone seemed to love the idea of scooters, but they were also asking to not have them on College Ave sidewalks. That was what a majority of people wanted. He supported the amendment because he thought the city has spoken and they don’t want them on College Avenue sidewalks but they would be fine on the sidewalks in the rest of the city.
Alderperson William Siebers (District 1) said that we don’t allow skateboards or bikes on College Avenue. He saw no reason to make an exception for the scooters.
Alderperson Michael Smith (District 10) agreed with Alderperson Siebers.
Alderperson Joe Martin (District 4) said he enjoyed talking about this because he spends a lot of time on the sidewalk and they are crazy. He reached out to “my colleagues” [I took that to be city council members] in Portland, Oregon and San Antonio, Texas, and, in those cities, scooters are allowed everywhere except on sidewalks.
Alderperson Vered Meltzer (District 2) thought that allowing the scooters on the College Avenue sidewalk would undermine the city’s struggles with enforcing the current no bikes or skateboards rule.
Alderperson Schultz appreciated the concerns that the constituents of his colleagues shared. He felt like he was the lone holdout, but he also felt that he had more experience with these than perhaps his colleagues. He wasn’t sure how many in the room had used these types of scooters with some frequency and understood how they’re used and where they’re used. He said that for most of the places he’s been where they have been used, he couldn’t recall any city that didn’t allow them on their main thoroughfares. He wanted the city to think seriously about some signage at the entry and exit points where riders would have to come off the sidewalk and merge into the bicycle lanes.
The motion to amend was approved 13-1 with Alderperson Schultz opposed.
They then moved on to discuss approving the amended Memorandum of Understanding with Bird, Inc.
Alderperson Siebers wanted to know if the city had figured out the distribution centers where the scooters will come from.
Director Paula Vandehey answered that once the MOU gets approved by Council the city will be really hands-off. Bird will work on hiring managers who will manage the program in the city. They’re limited to up to 100 scooters at any given time. They will do the distribution throughout the city, and they are required to do the recharging and redistribution of the scooters so they don’t all end up in the downtown area. They are dockless so they will not be in certain locations like Alderperson Siebers may have seen with certain bike programs.
Alderperson Siebers wanted to know what qualifications there were in terms of where the scooters would be distributed.
Director Vandehey said Bird would work with the city, but they will also use data to find where the scooters are being used and try to redistribute them to areas where they’ll have the highest use and most success. That’s one of the things the city will want to learn and Bird will be providing monthly data during the pilot program. Some of the things the city will be looking to gauge the success of the program will be (1) are people following the rules and (2) are people actually even using the scooters?
Alderperson Siebers wanted to know if the city had the ability to terminate the pilot program early.
Director Vandehey confirmed they could terminate it completely. The city also has the power to simply pause it if something was going wrong then sit down and talk about it and possibly start it again after changes were made.
Alderperson Siebers said the reason why I brought that up is because he talked to people in Chicago and in a city in Indiana where they have these scooters and it’s not all fantastic. Riders like to discard the scooters wherever they feel like, often on the sidewalk blocking people from walking. He hoped the program worked, but if wanted to make sure that if they have enough problems early on that the city would pause things and, if the issues can’t be resolved, end the program.
Alderperson Schultz said the MOU puts most of the responsibility on Bird to administer the program and keep the scooters up-to-date, clean, and where they need to be. He was appreciative that scooter companies take steps to maintain their scooters and verify through pictures that the scooters are docked properly before the ride is completed. He stated that the city was going to have some significant growing pains in relation to this program because it is a relative unknown and people will have to get used to it. He had a feeling that the city will get a significant number of complaints but that shouldn’t immediately result in halting the program. It will be a process that the community is going to have to go through to understand how the scooters are going to be used. He hoped the users will respect the rules and do their best to keep the scooters where they need to be. He said he was a little concerned about some of the high density events that Appleton holds, particularly Mile of Music, and how the scooters will be used during those events. He was inclined to refer it back to committee to add some language about signage but decided to just leave that to staff. He suggested that the signs should be installed a couple weeks before the scooters arrive and say something along the lines of “Beware. Scooters are about to come to the city. Understand what’s coming” He thought signs were particularly important given that the city would be limiting their usage on College Avenue. He also wondered if there should be some language on the sign telling people not to drop the scooters on private property. He seemed to think there might end up being a problem with people leaving the scooters on private property outside the urban corridor. He said he would be happy to speak to staff if they were interested in signage and his concerns about signage. He was very eager to see this project move forward. He again cautioned the Council members and staff that there will be a significant amount of complaints and said that they should take them in stride and encourage people to get used to the scooters and do their best to accept them.
Alderperson Firkus agreed that there will be some challenges. There are definitely things that could go wrong with allowing scooters in Appleton, but there are also opportunities here where they could replace some of the trips being taken by cars right now with short scooter rides. He thought the scooters might allow people who can’t or don’t want to walk certain distances to hop on a scooter and make those trips in an effective, quicker way than walking. He was comfortable approving this item because it’s a pilot program, and, if things don’t bring any benefit to the city, they can pull the plug.
The item was approved by the Council 14-0.
You can view the full Common Council meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=851822&GUID=EDFB6A15-8566-46DC-911D-4643CD7A5D33&Options=info|&Search=
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