E-scooters' future in San Francisco uncertain as permit period nears end
SAN FRANCISCO -- Electric scooters arrived in San Francisco five years ago. Their arrival sparked continuing debate over how to regulate the devices and make them part of a transportation plan to encourage people to use a car less often. Some e-scooter operators have seen success while others have not.
"I do this walk everyday, seven days a week, sometimes in the morning on weekends and in the afternoon during the week," said Greg Giachino, a San Francisco resident who walks to work each day and often passes e-scooters on sidewalks. "There needs to be proper parking so there should be designated parking places, instead of letting people park on any pole or bike rack."
New regulations for scooters were introduced last fall that prohibit riding on sidewalks, assess fines for operators and users and limit the number of devices in a high-use area like the Embarcadero. Some of these policies led Bird, one of the three operators in San Francisco as of last month, to halt their operation in the city.
"Unfortunately, the regulatory environment in the city, including the fine structure, has been uniquely challenging, making it extremely difficult to operate a financially sustainable program," the company said in a statement. "We proposed specific changes to support better riding and parking compliance and asked for a reduction in fines while we implemented those changes. We have not been able to reach an agreement on that plan so we are ending our current operations in San Francisco."
Board of Supervisors president Aaron Peskin, who represents District 3, says the companies operating scooters came into San Francisco like many other disrupters, looking to the city as ground zero to launch their new business. Peskin says they followed the "ask for forgiveness not permission" approach when they launched and it's been a long journey to regulate the industry. While he thinks the two remaining companies, Lime and Spin, have worked with the city on improving the situation, he still has his concerns.
"The number of severe injuries and fatalities have continued to rise so if you want to use one of these devices, be careful and wear a helmet," supervisor Peskin told KPIX. "The genie is out of the bottle and we're not going to put it back in the bottle."
Lime says it is working with the city to prevent riders from being on sidewalks and will pass the fine to users. The company also said it was the first shared electric vehicle company to have a full profitable year. In San Francisco, Lime reported its riders traveled over one million miles last year.
"We're committed to insuring that our carbon footprint is as minimal as possible," said Charlie Mastoloni, senior manager of government relations for the Southwest region. "I don't think that there is one silver bullet, so to speak, that can solve all transportation. Rather, I think it's going to be a series of different parts collaborating and working together."
The other operator, Spin, says a survey last fall of more than 4,300 users in the city showed that their scooters displaced more than 29 percent of trips that could have been taken by a private car or ride share. The company says it also remains committed to working with the SFMTA as a scooter operator in San Francisco, a spokesperson said in an e-mail.
"You'll find them in front of this tree here. You'll find people riding on this sidewalk. So, if you're in a wheelchair, you're not going to do so well if someone runs into you," Giachino said, pointing out places he has seen scooters in the way while on one of his walks in the city. "All these things sort of undermine our goals as a transit-first city instead of saying 'Well, we need more buses and trains,' this takes away from that."
He thinks there needs to be designated parking spots for each scooter company and more enforcement. Giachino is concerned that a large number of users are tourists visiting San Francisco.
Peskin's district includes Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf and North Beach, which all attract many tourists each year. He admits scooters are helping get some people out of cars but agrees tourists are using a large number of the devices locally.
"Having people onto any alternative methods, whether it's bicycles, whether it's scooters and, preferably, on our buses and our street cars and our cables is the priority," Peskin said. "Scooters are definitely not a huge part of that solution but they're a part of this."
Lime says its service has replaced millions of car trips, avoiding thousands of metric tons of carbon dioxide and has reduced millions of gallons of gas consumption globally.
"We share the same goal with mass transit and can work hand-in-hand collectively to find ways to intertwine the two together, I don't think it has to be an 'if/or' type of situation," Mastoloni said.
Giachino worries the goal of getting more people out of cars will be held back if too many people use scooters.
"If the city is going to be serious about being car-free and having functioning public transportation line or lines then you want people on public transportation," he said.
Earlier this year the SFMTA turned to an outside consultant to conduct an evaluation of the entire scooter program. The current permits for operators end in June but the evaluation is still scheduled to continue into the summer. Staff expect the SFMTA board will extend the existing permit term for another year.