Title:
Title
Update on Shared-Rideables Permitting
End
FileID
File ID: 2020-00241
Location
Location: Citywide
Recommendation:
Recommendation
Review and comment.
Contact: Jennifer Donlon Wyant, Transportation Planning Manager (916) 808-5913; Valerie Hermanson, Transportation Administrative Analyst (916) 808-6788; David Edrosolan, Interim Transportation Division Manager (916) 808-5974, Department of Public Works
Body
Presenter: Jennifer Donlon Wyant, Transportation Planning Manager (916) 808-5913, Department of Public Works
Attachments:
1-Description/Analysis
Description/Analysis
Issue Detail: Shared-rideable businesses offer bicycles, e-bicycles, e-scooters, and similar rideable devices on a self-service, short-term rental basis. Shared-rideable programs can help achieve the City’s goals of encouraging active transportation; reducing vehicle miles traveled and single occupancy trips; providing first and last mile solutions for transit; and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A desirable shared-rideable business program should also reduce the potential for shared-rideable devices to block or interfere with pedestrian and emergency service use and access to all streets, sidewalks, paths, driveways, doorways, and other avenues of vehicular and pedestrian traffic, and provide adequate parking to meet the needs of customers.
The City of Sacramento’s current Shared-Rideable Ordinance <http://www.cityofsacramento.org/-/media/Corporate/Files/Public-Works/Transportation/Active-Transportation/OR20190007-An-Ordinance-Amending-Chapters-518-and-1076-of-the-Sacramento-City-Code-Relating-to-Share.pdf?la=en> was adopted at City Council on April 2, 2019. At the time of adoption, Council directed staff to return to Council in a workshop format to provide an update on shared-rideables. This staff report is the report back.
Policy Considerations: This report is consistent with and reports on the Council adopted Shared-Rideable Ordinance as requested by Council.
Economic Impacts: None
Environmental Considerations:
California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA): These actions include administrative activities that are not considered a project under the CEQA Guidelines, as they will have no significant effect on the environment (Title 14 Cal. Code Reg. §§15378 (b)(5), 15311.)
Sustainability: Shared-rideables support the Climate Action Plan goal to create a connected multi-modal transportation network that increases the use of sustainable modes of transportation (e.g., walking, biking, transit) and reduces dependence on automobiles.
Commission/Committee Action: None.
Rationale for Recommendation: This report is for information only.
Financial Considerations: None.
Local Business Enterprise (LBE): Not applicable
Background: On April 2, 2019, City Council adopted an updated ordinance and business permit structure for shared-rideables in Chapter 5.18 and Chapter 10.76 of City Code. The ordinance is based on staff experience with the regional SACOG bike share program, interviews of peer cities, local stakeholders, and shared-rideable business operators. With adoption, Council directed staff to provide an update in a Council workshop format. This staff report responds to Council’s direction.
Number of Devices, Operators and Areas of Operation:
The first permitted operator through this regulatory framework came online on June 17, 2019. Since the ordinance’s adoption, the City of Sacramento has issued permits to four shared-rideable vendors, including JUMP, Lime, Spin, and Bird.
At the March 12, 2019, Council hearing, shared-rideable companies expressed concern about the proposed fees, noting that the fees would discourage entry into the Sacramento market. Council heard the concerns and asked staff to report back on the number of companies and number of devices.
As described above, the City has issued permits to four operators, as of September 2, 2020, however Lime left the Sacramento market, then acquired JUMP, and returned as the SACOG Regional Bike Share operator. As of that date, there the combined total of devices permitted to operate by the operators is 2,170 devices. Every three months, each operator can add another 250 devices to their fleet. Staff monitor number of devices, areas of operation, trip start/end, and routes traveled using Mobility Specification Data (MDS) and an internal data dashboard developed the by the City’s Information Technology Department.
Sacramento continues to see the success of its permit program and community use of the devices. Uber had ranked Sacramento as their second most popular city in terms of use of its shared-rideables in winter 2019-2020. COVID-19 has impacted ridership as shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Number of Shared-Rideables Trips by Month Since 2019 Ordinance
|
|
Year |
Number of Trips |
|
2019 |
June |
63,000 |
|
|
July |
145,000 |
|
|
August |
160,000 |
|
|
September |
163,000 |
|
|
October |
179,000 |
|
|
November |
145,000 |
|
|
December |
91,000 |
|
2020 |
January |
105,000 |
|
|
February |
131,000 |
|
|
March |
68,000 |
|
|
April |
0 |
|
|
May |
0 |
|
|
June |
3,000 |
|
|
July |
20,000 |
While each company has the discretion to determine its own service area, 20% of each operator’s fleet must be deployed to Opportunity Areas each morning. Service areas differ by company. All companies serve the city’s core from the American River to the North; the Sacramento River to the West; Florin Road in the South; and Power Inn Road to the East. . The service areas, along with the opportunity areas are illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Map of Shared-Rideable Service Areas
Key Issues
Since implementing the current regulatory framework for shared-rideables and the introduction of scooters, there have been some challenges, which are outlined below.
Parking: Riders sometimes park devices in a way that blocks the pedestrian path of travel or leave devices in locations that are not at bike racks or drop zones as required by the ordinance. Since June 1, 2019, there have been 1,437 reports to 311. The issues reported to 311 are primarily about parking. Constituents are not calling 311 for illegal scooting on sidewalks. See Table 2 for a summary of reported issues.
Table 2: Shared-Rideable 311 Reports June 2019 -August 2020
|
Reported Issue |
Number of Reports |
Percent |
|
Blocked driveway |
27 |
1.9% |
|
Blocked sidewalk |
509 |
35.4% |
|
Device left on private property |
21 |
1.5% |
|
Not parked at bike rack |
782 |
54.4% |
311 reports were logged from a broad area in the City.
To educate the public about proper and legal parking at a bike rack or designated drop zone, Public Works staff conducted in the field outreach three times between July and November 2019, and worked with the City Manager’s Office to create an education video (<http://www.cityofsacramento.org/Public-Works/Transportation/Planning-Projects/Shared-Rideables>). Parking enforcement for blocked accessible paths of travel began in December 2019. As of August 5,, 2020, 2,713 parking citations and warnings were issued to the companies totaling $71,995. The companies can, if they choose, pass the citation fees to the user who parked illegally, the city does not know who parked the device.
The Parking and Infrastructure fee, which collects $0.10 per trip per device, is meant to provide funding for additional parking infrastructure. Since this fee is a deposit for anticipated trips, the City does not spend this fee immediately to install bike park and waits until actual shared-rideable trips have occurred. To date, the City has collected $38,076.80 in fees for parking and has installed 53 parking spaces and three drop zones. Staff has also purchased another 30 racks for future installations. This contributes to the growing total of approximately 4,630 public and 2,023 private bike parking spaces citywide. However, the fees collected to date are not sufficient to meet the demand and need for parking.
Based on data collected from the companies, shared-rideable trips and parking are happening throughout the City, but predominately in the Central City, just outside the Central City, and around Sacramento State University. In the Central City, fees include a parking meter revenue loss fee of $32 per device to offset the revenue lost from removing on-street metered parking. To date, $63,552 has been collected and one metered parking space has been converted to shared-rideable parking. On-street parking requires an adjacent property owner to agree to assist with sweeping and ensuring the corral stays clear of any debris. Finding locations that can be converted and that have a property owner or a business willing to provide maintenance has been a challenge. Staff is currently evaluating options to reduce this fee or finding a way to pay for maintenance.
Trips and parking also occur outside the Central City, where there is little bike parking. Many trips end in single family residential areas without easy opportunities to install parking infrastructure. Parking options need to be identified for these areas.
Equity: Sacramento City Code 5.18 requires operators to deploy 20% of their fleet to Opportunity Areas (disadvantaged communities) each morning. While City staff develop the Data Dashboard, shared-rideable companies are self-reporting their compliance. Table 3 provides compliance for each operator’s permit period.
Table 3: Compliance with Deployment to Opportunity Areas
|
Company |
Average Percent Deployed to Opportunity Areas |
Compliance |
|
Bird |
21.3 |
Yes |
|
JUMP |
19.6% |
No |
|
Spin |
24.7% |
Yes |
Scooting on Sidewalks: The State of California allows cities to determine whether or not to allow bicycling on sidewalks. In 2016, City Council adopted City Code 10.76 allowing bicycling on sidewalks.
However, the State of California has prohibited scooting on sidewalks. The Sacramento Police Department has issued over 30 citations and 23 warning for illegally scooting on sidewalks. City Code 5.18 requires these businesses to educate their members about this law. How they educate their users is determined by them and reported to staff on a monthly basis.
Table 4: Compliance with Committed Education Events
|
Company |
Months Into 12 Month Permit |
Committed Education Events in Permit |
Completed Education Events in Permit |
|
Bird |
5/12 |
34 |
0 |
|
JUMP |
8/12 |
30 |
11 |
|
Lime (JUMP) |
9/12 |
4 |
0 |
|
Spin |
6/12 |
8 |
3 |
In response to reports of scooting on sidewalks, the City created and distributed the information video describe above. Additionally, the Public Works and Police Departments conducted in the field, in-person education to shared-rideable users about riding on sidewalks and parking three times between July and November. In December, the Police Department began issuing citations for scooting on sidewalks and to date have issued 30 citations. Education and awareness around the illegality of scooting on sidewalks continues to be a challenge.
Summary
The devices have been very popular. From June 2019 through September 3, 2020, Sacramento riders have taken over 654,000 shared-scooter trips and over 632,000 shared-bike trips. Together that is approximately 1,2 million trips. Each of these trips is a step towards the City reaching its Climate Action Plan goals by providing mobility choices beyond driving and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Staff believe the challenges described in this staff report can be addressed with expanded education requirements for the companies; continued enforcement by our Parking Division and Police Department; and the creation of space for these new mobility devices within our transportation and parking networks.