It’s Time for San Diego to Rein In Those Scooters

Originally posted Feb. 10, 2019

As serious injuries from scooter accidents mount at local emergency rooms, as it becomes known that more people are hurt on scooters than on bicycles or as pedestrians, while San Diego police issue record numbers of citations to scooter riders, while more companies are dumping their e-scooters onto the streets and sidewalks, and while other cities struggle to rein them in – it is time for San Diego to place some controls and restrictions on the motorized scooters.

And certainly more restrictions than what Mayor Faulconer has tentatively proposed (see below).

The Mayor is due to formally roll out his ideas on scooters at the Active Transportation and Infrastructure meeting of the City Council on Feb. 20th – at 2 PM at City Hall. If they are anything like what he has already publicly proposed in the press, they’re woefully inadequate.

The situation is dire.

In late January, a study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association found scooters are more dangerous than riding a bike or walking. UCLA medical personnel looked at about 250 patients who went to L.A. area ERs during a one-year period with scooter-related injuries. They found:

• only 4.4 percent were definitely wearing helmets and 8.4 percent weren’t even riding the scooters themselves.
• during the same 1-year period, there were ER visits for 195 biking and 181 for walkers.
• Roughly 30 percent of the people with scooter injuries taken to ERs came by ambulance — “an indication of the severity of their injuries.”
• Falls were responsible for the vast majority of the injuries — around 80 percent;
• next most common was a collision with an object, which caused 11 percent of injuries,
• followed by “being struck by a moving vehicle such as a car, bicycle or other scooter,” which triggered 9 percent of ER visits;
• non-riders who got hurt included walkers who tripped on a discarded scooter and people hit by someone riding a scooter.
• Doctors judged 5 percent of the people with scooter injuries to be drunk, or to have blood alcohol content above 0.05 percent;
• head injuries were most common, resulting in 40 percent of ER visits,
• followed by fractures at 32 percent and cuts, bruises or sprains at 28 percent.
• Of the 249 people brought to the L.A. ERs over the year-long period, 15 were ultimately admitted to a hospital — and two of those had to be put in intensive care, researchers said.
• (there were another 74 possibly scooter-related ER visits kept out of the study because they “lacked sufficient documentation.”)

In the Sunday, Feb. 3, San Diego Union-Tribune, Laura Schroeder reported on the huge jump in scooter-related citations issued by the city in 2018 from the previous 3 years. From 2014 through 2017, there were only 11. Yet compared to a recent 8-month period in 2018, the number of citations soared to 1,560! A 14,000 percent increase. Obviously, these numbers are a reflection of the massive dump within the city – and other parts of SoCal – of the thousands of motorized rental scooters by various companies, like Lime and Bird back in 2017.

About 90 percent of the citations went to adults riding without a helmet. But with the new law co-authored by our own Todd Gloria and signed into law by then-Gov. Jerry Brown, now adults 18 and older have the option of wearing helmets.

The U-T reported:

Police issued the most scooter tickets where scooters are popular. Downtown, for instance, accounts for about 18 percent of scooter tickets issued from January through August 2018.

More than 500 citations went to scooter drivers in Mission Beach and Mission Bay Park areas and another 450, or nearly 30 percent of all tickets, were given to scooter riders in two areas of Pacific Beach.

Riding a scooter on a sidewalk is illegal and SDPD issued citations to 54 people for riding on the concrete walk-ways. 18 citations went to riders with a passenger, and one went to an inebriated rider. Scooter tickets go up to $250.

The U-T added:

Tourists received more scooter tickets than residents of San Diego. The data show they received two out of every three citations with people from Phoenix and Scottsdale, Ariz., alone, getting more than 80 tickets.

When Capt. Tina Williams of the Northern Division of SDPD addressed the Pacific Beach Planning Group on the issue of scooters in early October of 2018, she had slightly different numbers. She reported to the local planners that 1,660 citations were issued from January 1 to October (it’s unclear whether that’s just for the Northern Division or for the entire city?) Capt. Williams also said the total number of citations for a variety of reasons, such as double-riding and  underage – were 1,774. She added an equal number of verbal warnings were given during that period.

Undaunted, the PB Planning Group came up with some recommended changes to Faulconer’s proposals (see below). Other local planning committees should do likewise, and hold public hearings on scooters and see how local residents feel about them. The Ocean Beach Planning Board may hold such a hearing in the near future, as at least one board member committed at their last meeting to try to get it on the agenda. And the Peninsula Community Planning Board could take the issue up as well, if the will is there.

Pacific Beach citizens aren’t the only ones who want to tighten Faulconer’s proposals. In general, many residents of San Diego are upset with the lackadaisical ways the scooters have been dumped into their neighborhoods. and concerned that not enough is being done to regulate them.

In early January, a citizens’ group hand-delivered a list of proposals to the mayor’s office with their ideas. Called “Safe Walkways,” members of the group say rental scooters are making it unsafe to even walk around parts of town, and that more needs to be done to hold the companies and users accountable.

Jonathan Freeman, the founder of Safe Walkways, says the scooters are a hazard to pedestrians and the situation will only become worse if nothing is done to hold companies like Lime and Bird accountable. Freeman told Fox5:

“Nobody wants police officers issuing citations, So the responsibility has to be placed on the companies. They’re the only people who can solve the problem and our proposal says, ‘If you sign this agreement and someone reports misuse, you will cancel their account so they won’t be able to use a scooter from you anymore.’

And we require that the scooter companies agree to place their scooters in the road, not on sidewalks.”

The mayor’s office responded to the Safe Walkways proposal saying in part:

“The regulations the Mayor will soon bring forward will include limiting the speed of the devices in high-pedestrian traffic areas, limiting how and where devices can be staged and parked, indemnification of the City and a requirement of liability insurance, better education of riders about local laws, data sharing and fees for the right to use our public right-of-way.”

City politicians need to continue to feel the heat from the grassroots, like from groups like this and importantly from local planning committees. For conditions are not going to get better in the near future. You can bet that more scooters are on their way, as companies launch their own versions; Uber’s scooters hit the LA area in October; Lyft will be unleashing its version in select cities soon; and who knows, maybe Harley-Davidson‘s new electric scooters will end up as rentals.

Here’s Mayor Faulconer’s proposals:

Limiting Speed: Using geofencing technology, operators will be required to slow their devices down to eight miles per hour in designated high-pedestrian traffic zones around the City, including:

• Boardwalks in Mission Beach, Pacific Beach and La Jolla beach areas
• Downtown Embarcadero
• Promenade behind the San Diego Convention Center
• Martin Luther King Jr. Promenade Downtown
• Balboa Park
• NTC Park
• Mission Bay Park

City Indemnification: Each operator will be required to indemnify the City from liability claims and each will need to hold a liability insurance policy.

Rider Education: Prior to each use, companies will be required to educate riders of local and state vehicle and traffic codes and the cost of a citation for violating those laws. Each device also will need to be clearly labeled “Riding on Sidewalks is Prohibited.”

Data Sharing: The operators will provide the City with detailed monthly reports that will be useful for Climate Action Plan monitoring and mobility planning, including but not limited to:

• Deployed Device Data, including fleet size and utilization rates
• Trip information, including start/end points, routes, distances and duration
• Parking information
• Reported incidents and actions taken
• Reported obstructions/hazards and actions taken
• Maintenance activities

Fees: Each company wishing to operate within City limits will be issued an annual permit, with a permit fee, and will be required to pay an additional operational fee for the use of City property. Costs associated with each fee are still being determined.

Pretty mild restrictions and no limits on numbers or bans from boardwalks – where many of the accidents occur. So, unlike in San Francisco, Los Angles and Santa Monica, Faulconer has not proposed to limit the number of scooters or scooter companies that can operate within San Diego city limits.

Back in September, the City of Los Angeles came up with its rules; first it established a one-year pilot program, once it issued permits to “dockless vehicle” companies. They include:

• a 3,000 vehicle cap per operator;
• a top speed of the scooters of 15 mph;
• companies are required to equip the scooters with a minimum 48-point font warning against riding on sidewalks;
• requirements that dockless bikes and scooters be parked in the upright position to keep the right-of-way clear – operators will be required to use technology that can tell if a device is parked upright.
• Companies also must maintain a 24-hour hotline and respond to improperly parked or inoperable devices within two hours, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
• the Department of Transportation is tasked to report back on building out safe alternatives to illegal sidewalk riding; and
•  study potential revenue from the pilot to support active transportation infrastructure, education and enforcement;
• each Council office to establish how dockless bikes and scooters are rolled out in their district,
• and prohibit parking of dockless bikes and scooters in specified areas and also designate parking areas for the devices in high-traffic areas..

Here are the Pacific Beach Planning Group’s recommended changes to Faulconer’s proposals: