Paul Mackie began with the point that the US is a “car country” in which 85% of car trips are taken by single drivers. Many groups are trying to change that equation through micro-mobility, which consists of traditional and emerging forms of active transportation , including: private bikes, bikeshare, e-bikes, scooters, hover boards, and Segways.

Bikeshare has grown significantly since 2010. Scooters were a non-existent segment of the active transportation market in 2010; in 2018 their use exploded. For instance, Arlington in October 2018 had 25,000 capital bikeshare trips. That month when scooter pilots began, there were 69,000 Bird and Lime scooter trips.

Laura Miller Brooks explained that she was a former bike advocate before coming to Lime. Lime defines itself as an urban mobility company, focusing on urban centers and thinking about how people get around. Lime is active in Alexandria, Arlington, Washington, DC, and in Montgomery County, MD. Nationwide, Lime experienced its 15 millionth trip last month.

Lime’s target market is those 300 million annual car trips under one mile and walking trips over ½ a mile. To achieve this they work with cities to create safer and protected infrastructure.

As the head of the Ballston BID, Tina Leone “hears from everyone” about scooters. In her community there is a scooter love/hate relationship. There are concerns about where they are dropped off, including on sidewalks, and about enforcing where they are ridden.

Lambert explained that Alexandria’s scooter pilot program is in the 4^th month of 9 month pilot. They already have had 22,000 rides with 9,000 users; to reach this level with bikeshare it took three years. They are collecting data on crashes, which is Alexandria’s major policy issue.

Police officers are at a loss of what to do when Alexandria residents ask for help with scooter enforcement issues. The Alexandria City Council is eager to communicate the rules of road and address underage users, although it is “ironic that kids cannot ride scooters.” Leone agreed that scooter policy goals is to “stop people from being ‘butt heads.’ ” In Paris, police can charge abusers, such as riding with two people on a scooter, with fines of up to 100 Euros.

Lambert feels that carving out space for scooters on the sidewalk is probably the direction where this is headed. And force vendors to take responsibility for this. That being said, people love the dockless component of scooters.

The panel offered other solutions for parking and safety issues:

• Scooter “corals”—unused parking spaces may one solution
• Maybe initially it’s just a lot of paint and signage to show where to drop off scooters?
• Maybe get a helmet when you buy your coffee?
• To change people’s behavior you need to rely on engineering and education. Enforcement does not work.

Scooters have taken a beating and currently they are being overutilized. Lime is looking for 2-4 trips per day per scooper and not the current 9-11. New scooter types are in the works!

Incentives to discourage car use? Maybe subsidy for bikes and scooters, the way that employers give free parking spaces?

Moderator

Paul Mackie, Director of Research and Communications, Mobility Lab

Panelists

Laurie Miller Brooks, Public Affairs, Lime

Yon Lambert, Director of Transportation and Environmental Services, City of Alexandria

Tina Leone, Chief Executive Officer, Ballston BID