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The “main event” of this morning’s Public Works Committee meeting, as Ald. Bob Bauman called it, was five items related to dockless bike share and electric scooters. Ordinances passed were hopeful for the former, and less so for the latter.
Mike Amsden, a multimodal transportation manager for the Department of Public Works (DPW), gave a presentation on a new pilot program the department has been working on for dockless bike share, which is similar to the docked Bublr Bikes program, but uses a smartphone app in place of a physical station. DPW hopes to launch the program as early as next month and have it run through the end of 2019.
The goals of this program are to increase bicycle ridership, provide more access to bike share, understand the relationship between docked and dockless bike share, and avoid clutter or hazards for other users with parking requirements. “We ultimately believe that bike share will be a combination of docked and dockless,” Amsden said.
Dockless bike share companies will apply to be a part of the pilot. DPW will require a plan of operations, including staffing, community engagement, insurance and maintenance for all applicants. Pilot participants will be allowed a base fleet of 250 bicycles, which will be a combination of standard and “e-assist” bicycles. “If you have thousands of bikes come out, that’s where you get the clutter,” Amsden said, while adding that fleet sizes may be adjusted throughout the pilot period.
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Under this plan, the bicycles will be spread across five “service zones” to ensure bicycles are available in many areas of the city and to avoid clutter in more dense neighborhoods.
"Lime applauds the City of Milwaukee for establishing a dock-free bike share pilot program," said Emma Green, communications coordinator at Lime, which provides dockless bike share. "We are excited to learn more once details of the pilot have been finalized. We believe this will be transformative for mobility in Milwaukee."
Amsden said that the next steps are to finalize and issue the permit application, then review and approve applicants.
An ordinance passed by the committee prohibits dockless bike share services that are not a part of this program. Bauman said companies can “play by the rules” or risk having their vehicles impounded.
Things did not go as well for Bird scooters.
After the ordinance on dockless bike share was passed, Deputy City Attorney Adam Stephens went over the lawsuit that the City of Milwaukee is engaged in with Bird Rides Inc. He also took questions from committee members that ranged from what happens when someone injures another person while riding a Bird scooter to if Bird riders typically wear helmets.
Then Bauman put forward an ordinance that allows the city to impound scooters located on public property, including sidewalks. “Under the ordinance... we will have the authority to pick them up, impound them and the company can come get them upon payment of an impoundment fee and the cost of all storage and handling,” he said of the electric scooters.
The ordinance will go in front of the full Common Council on July 31.
Bauman repeatedly and emphatically said that the City of Milwaukee has no power to authorize Bird scooters until the State Legislature acts on making them legal. He also said that Bird is “basically giving the City of Milwaukee the middle finger” and that riders are “being defrauded by this company.”
Bauman concluded by saying that he is “more than willing” to work with other electric scooter companies once their services are legalized by the State Legislature.
