The Atlanta City Council Monday passed an ordinance that would place a series of regulations on electric scooter companies operating in the city.
Bird scooters in their natural habitat
The ordinance lays out a series of regulations for ‘shareable dockless mobility devices,’ aka the electric scooters that have become such a common sight on Atlanta streets and sidewalks over the past six months. The scooters, operated now by four separate companies in total, may be fun to ride and easy to access; but between the safety concerns, their cluttering of right of ways, and a seeming disregard for existing laws, the city felt it was time to slap down some regulations on the explosive new industry.
Step one, unsurprisingly, has to do with money. Scooter companies will be forced to obtain permits costing $12,000 per year for their first 500 scooters in the city, with payments of $50 per scooter for every vehicle above that initial number. That is no small chunk of change, considering there are nearly 2,000 Bird scooters in the city alone. On top of that each company can be fined up to $1,000 per day for violations, though how strictly those will be enforced is not yet clear. Part of the ordinance claims that the city will use the money strictly for the cost of enforcement, but those fees are not earmarked.
With that pesky issue out of the way the focus turns safety. The scooters are meant to be ridden strictly on roads, preferably in bike lanes where applicable, (which it often is not). Topping out at about 15 miles per hour, that can feel like a risky proposition when taking into account Atlanta’s notoriously poor road conditions and famously dangerous drivers. Per the ordinance that rule would be more heavily enforced in an effort to keep them off sidewalks and away from pedestrians. Note there is nothing requiring a helmet or other safety devices while riding, though they are ‘encouraged.’
The third point of emphasis is to try and dissuade people from piling up their scooters upon disembarking, banning them from being left within five feet of a sidewalk or within 40 feet of a bus stop, or on the grass, (wherever that grass may be). They also must be left upright, not strewn about on their sides. It will be left up to the companies themselves to figure out how to enforce those rules, (the company can tell who last activated each device and has the user’s credit card on file) and no telling how they will deal with inevitable issues such as vandals or the wind.
Also thrown in – the companies must provide a means of purchasing access that does not include a credit card or smart phone. Whether that means re-purposing old MARTA tokens and adding a coin slot or instituting some sort of voucher system remains to be seen, but it is certainly another headache for the scooter companies to deal with.
The issue of regulating an entire industry that sprung out of nowhere isn’t necessarily a unique one – cities across the world have been confronted with the same issue over the past two years or so. City of Atlanta officials took similar legislation from other cities, including San Francisco and Chicago, into account when drafting their own version of the bill.
The legislation now heads to the desk of Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms for her signature.
