Foster City welcomes LimeBikes

“These bikes are environmentally friendly and, for a city the size of Foster City, I think it’s going to be a wonderful success and I’m really looking forward to it,” said Councilman Charlie Bronitsky.

Mayor Sam Hindi also applauded the program for offering low-cost transportation to residents living in apartments who may not be able to store bikes at home, and said electric bikes specifically will benefit senior and disabled populations.

The idea is to first phase in about 50 LimeBike vehicles and gradually expand the fleet over the year based on ridership data from the first month, which the company will share with the city monthly, along with customer feedback and complaints. LimeBike also agreed to respond to complaints within two hours during business hours.

The dockless bike sharing service costs $1 to start a ride on standard bikes plus $1 every 30 minutes, and rides on electric bikes and scooters cost $1 to get started and 15 cents per minute. Users are told to park the GPS-equipped vehicles by sidewalks, bike racks or other designated areas and not in the public right of way or in a manner that would “clutter residential areas,” according to a staff report. It’s when bikes are improperly parked that controversy ensues, and in an effort to limit those inconveniences, LimeBike has agreed to collect their bikes and scooters around town every two hours.

“All this banter about the program from other communities that are having challenges with it — San Francisco in particular — that’s a different issue. We don’t have the same issues as San Francisco,” Councilman Herb Perez said. “But I think it’s ridiculous to pick them up every two hours and not at the end of the day when they’re done being used.”

Mayor Sam Hindi agreed that two-hour sweeps are “overkill,” after which City Manager Kevin Miller said such a requirement could be evaluated after the pilot begins. That was just about the only concern the council expressed with respect to the program.    

Locations for the hubs where bikes and scooters are corralled have yet to be determined, but may include City Hall or any of the public parks, according to the report.

The San Mateo-based company operates locally in South San Francisco, Burlingame, Alameda, Gilroy, San Jose and in cities across the country.

“This is about trying to find solutions beneficial to the community at a low cost if any and this is exactly one of those,” Hindi said, after referencing another bike-share program the city previously considered that would have cost $100,000. “This is a pilot program that I’m hoping will become a lot bigger than it is today.”

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

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