San Mateo OKs permit process for bike sharing operator

From May 2016 to February, the city has participated in a bike share program in some form, working with Social Bicycles to provide 50 pedal bicycles until May of 2018. About a year ago, the city began offering the service through the startup Lime, which provided a fleet of 275 pedal and electric bicycles that did not need to be docked at specific hubs.

Though ridership grew to .96 daily rides per bike through Lime, up from the .26 daily rides logged with Social Bicycles, the bike share service ended abruptly after Lime announced it would end its bike-sharing operations in February, pulling bikes from San Mateo, Burlingame, South San Francisco and Foster City.

Deputy Mayor Maureen Freschet was joined by her fellow councilmembers in a 4-0 vote in support of establishing a shared bicycle permit process in the city and holding off on allowing e-scooters, which they hoped would give officials time to study e-scooters’ impact on other cities. Councilman Rick Bonilla was absent from the meeting.

“While I recognize the importance of first- and last-mile solutions … I favor the bicycles, I think that’s great,” said Freschet. “I just am happy to support giving more time to scooters and really taking a closer look at what’s happening in other communities.”

Officials approved the issuance of one permit to a bike share operator allowed to operate up to 500 pedal and electric dockless bicycles over a one-year period. The operator selected would be required to pay a $5,000 nonrefundable permit fee to cover the cost of implementing the program, explained Parking Manager Sue-Ellen Atkinson.

Several members of the city’s Sustainability and Infrastructure Commission and residents voiced support for the city to start taking steps toward allowing e-scooters at the commission’s March 13 meeting. But concerns voiced by more than 740 respondents to a shared mobility survey administered by the city in early 2019 about pedestrian safety, e-scooters blocking sidewalks and illegal use of e-scooters on sidewalks weighed heavily for the City Council Monday.

Though the survey showed nearly 58% of survey respondents indicated some level of support for an e-scooter pilot program and 78% of respondents were either very supportive or somewhat supportive of bicycle-sharing programs in San Mateo, Councilman Eric Rodriguez expressed concerns about how much officials should rely on the survey data since those who don’t live in San Mateo could have responded to the survey.

“I think we really need to use a lot of caution when we use that as evidence,” he said.

Mayor Diane Papan said she appreciated the ability to exercise caution in introducing e-scooters in the city as well as the opportunity to amend the ordinance in the future to allow them in San Mateo.

“I’m comfortable with not proceeding with e-scooters at this moment,” she said. “I appreciate the flexibility going into the ordinance so that we can in the future evaluate it.”

anna@smdailyjournal.com

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