The Municipal Services Committee met 03/06/2023. It was a brief meeting, less than 10 minutes long, in which they received updates on both the negotiations between the city and Bird, Inc regarding the e-scooter program as well as the College Avenue Lane Reconfiguration Proposal.
I’ve prepared a complete transcript of the meeting for your downloading pleasure.
BIRD E-SCOOTER UPDATE
Per Deputy Director Ross Buetow, Public Works Director Danielle Block has reached out to Bird and brought to their attention the concerns that were raised by alderpersons during the 02/20/2023 Municipal Services Committee meeting. Those concerns and desires included:
- Curbing or eliminating underaged riders
- Increasing the per ride fee received by the city
- Reducing the term of the agreement from 2 years to 1 year.
- Generating a more detailed month report that includes things such as the number of reported accidents and a parking compliance report.
Deputy Director Buetow did not how far along discussions with Bird were but said that at the 03/20/2023 committee meeting Director Block would be able to provide an update as to the discussions with Bird and any changes in the scope of the agreement.
Regarding any increase to the per-ride fee the city receives (currently at $0.10 per ride), he did not know if that would be something that could be agreed on between city staff and Bird, Inc or if an alderperson would have to specifically request that the fee be raised, so he did not know if an increase would be included in any new proposal that came before the committee.
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) said that, regarding underaged usage, the memo talked about Bird being able to send out messaging and turn on an ID check for a couple of weeks. She expressed a desire to have firm language in any agreement explaining what Bird would do and the period of time during which it would be done.
COLLEGE AVENUE LANE RECONFIGURATION UPDATE
Staff did not have any update to the College Avenue Lane Reconfiguration proposal beyond what was stated in the memo to the committee. The memo essentially clarified the timeline for the process and laid out the metrics they would use to analyze the impact of the lane changes.
Alderperson Hartzheim encouraged anyone who had questions about the proposal to check out the city’s webpage about it, because she found that the information on that page had been answering a lot of the initial questions she had received from her constituents.
Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) mentioned that a lot of the residents she had spoken to and who had provided feedback on the proposal had thought that this lane reconfiguration proposal was driven by city staff. She wanted to clarify for the people listening to the meeting that the changes were in fact driven by the people who live and work in the downtown area.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1086001&GUID=0F465277-3E38-4D90-95C8-50AA05565EF3
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