San Mateo’s bike plan

In San Mateo County, the bikes were in South San Francisco, Burlingame, San Mateo and Foster City, while other cities like Millbrae and Belmont were contemplating them.

What started with regular bicycles moved to electric-assisted bikes and now San Mateo officials are determining ways to permit a new vendor to keep it organized and used in a way that works for all, or at least most. Turns out there is nothing in the municipal code about shared mobility devices, colloquially known as rented bikes, scooters and whatever comes next, and the San Mateo City Council is set to discuss Monday rules for a shared mobility device permit program, according to Assistant City Manager Kathy Kleinbaum.

Its reminiscent of the effort put forth long ago on the use of Segways on city sidewalks since those things were supposed to be all the rage. They weren’t, mainly because of their high price tag, but it set the stage for the next wave of similar devices such as hoverboards or those one-wheeled skateboard things.

While a few members of the Sustainability and Infrastructure Commission supported the use of electric scooters, it’s up to the council if it wants to move ahead and how. So far, based on the frustrating pullout by Lime and the previous incarnation of the docked bikes that weren’t ridden nearly as much as Lime bikes, it appears the city is moving forward in a methodical way to ensure the right policies are in place.

And that’s a good thing since it looks like San Mateo is leading the way in setting this policy and the other cities will likely adopt something similar since these bikes or other devices don’t necessarily stay within city limits.

Also in the nascent stages, Caltrain is starting to discuss ebikes and scooters since many of them originate near its stages, according to Board Member Charles Stone, also a Belmont councilman. This study will focus on the whole corridor, he added.

That makes sense since I said previously that transportation planners should try to determine a way a public agency could create their own network that matches up to buses, trains and shuttles and could be scaled countywide. But that’s a big lift for transit planners already in the midst of a number of large-scale infrastructure projects. However, it might be a matter of Google not being the first search engine and Apple not being the first smartphone. Perhaps Lime was on the bleeding edge and others will learn from their hits and misses.

In the meantime, San Mateo is trudging along with creating a one-year permit, likely for Jump Bikes (the red ones), and the council will discuss when and if they want to allow scooters — which have a more perilous reputation than the bikes. After all, there are real issues to consider when it comes to safety. While liability can be addressed in a user agreement, do we really want an experiment to result in a death on San Mateo streets?

While a year is seemingly short, it might seem long since these programs have already gone through several incarnations in a short period of time. Perhaps in this time, it might settle down and something might work well for all. Perhaps the transportation planners might also set their sights on this issue and figure out a way to make it work for us, the public who pays them, as well.

This process has certainly been a learning one and there might be a time in the future when we say, remember when we didn’t have bikes everywhere for people to use? The bikes work. They help solve the last-mile problem, meaning how best to get people from public transportation to their destination. That’s an issue transportation planners have talked about for years and it took some doing to get something to help aside from commuter shuttles.

So as the San Mateo City Council explores its options, I say try the Jump Bikes, wait and see if it works and lasts, then consider blending in the scooters with a pilot program. Better to go slow and have it work, than to move fast and have it disappear like the cicadas.

Jon Mays is the editor in chief of the Daily Journal. He can be reached at jon@smdailyjournal.com. Follow Jon on Twitter @jonmays.