Municipal Services Committee Discusses Future Plans For Bird Scooters – Expresses Desire To Close Municipal Code Loophole That Would Allow Scooters To Operate In The City Even Without A Contract

The Municipal Services Committee met 05/20/2024. The bulk of the meeting was taken up with a discussion about Bird Scooters and the future outlook of electric scooter rider-share programs in the city. This was an informational discussion at which no action was taken and had been placed on the agenda to provide an opportunity for the committee to discuss their thoughts after the presentation given by a Bird Inc representative on 05/06/2024.

I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:

There seemed to be general consensus that the committee was not interested in entering into a contract with Bird for 2024. Although the proposed virtual docking stations were potentially an answer to the issues of the scooters being parked and scattered everywhere, they would not do anything to improve non-parking related safety issues. Additionally, requiring the scooters to be parked in specific locations would remove some of the advantages of the scooters, particularly the ability to ride the scooters up to the door of one’s destination.

Staff informed the city that, as the Municipal Code was currently written, a ride-share company could come in and operate within the city without entering into an agreement. Apparently, there was nothing in the municipal code that would prevent a private company from placing their ride-share vehicles on public property and in the public right-of-way. So, some action would need to be taken to update the municipal code in order to prevent the use of commercial rental ride-share vehicles in the public right of way.

There was discussion about Milwaukee’s program for rideshare vehicles. They have an ordinance that bans commercial mobility vehicles in the public right-of-way unless the company operating the vehicles has an agreement with the city. They then actively seek out proposals from companies every year and enter into agreements with a couple of them to provide rental vehicles in the city subject to various restrictions, safety protocols, and oversight. A program like Milwaukee’s would require more staff time but could also potentially bring in more money to the city.

The discussion ended with a plan to come back with an action item for the next meeting’s agenda. It seemed generally to be agreed upon that regardless of whether or not Appleton wanted to allow scooters in the city in the future, they did need to update the municipal code so that a company could not operate in the city without an agreement.

Whether or not the city will pursue an agreement with a company in the future to bring back scooters was another matter, but there did not seem to be much appetite for allowing them to operate in the city for 2024.

View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1202028&GUID=CFAEEB45-78C7-4877-8FFE-36412B2411B0