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Tag Archive for: bikeshare

Voices of the Coalition Opposed to Kill Bike-Share Bill

June 27, 2022/by Jared Sanchez

On June 22, 2022, CalBike Executive Director Dave Snyder testified in opposition to a bill that would add an insurance requirement to shared bikes and scooters that is out of proportion to the potential harm caused by these devices. The cost of this requirement, if AB 371 passes, would put most private and public shared micromobility systems out of business in California. The bill passed out of committee, with amendments, and still poses a threat to shared bikes and scooters.

Here’s what Snyder told the committee (written testimony follows video):

Written testimony:

My name is Dave Snyder of the California Bicycle Coalition.

Let me start by saying that for our mission — which is to advocate for equitable communities where bicycling helps people be prosperous, healthy, and joyful — nothing is more important than being able to walk safely. Nobody should have to worry about a bike or a scooter hitting them or getting in their way as they walk down the sidewalk.

It’s also important that people have affordable convenient transportation. You should not have to incur the expense of an automobile to accomplish that. Unfortunately, our transit systems aren’t good enough for most people for most trips. It’s rarely fast or frequent and buses don’t go door-to-door. That’s where shared bikes and scooters come in.

Let me be clear. We’re not talking about the current systems and the companies that operate them. This isn’t about them. It’s about the future of equitable transportation. A transit system that provides fast and frequent service on major routes, and a shared bike or scooter for that last mile to one’s door, can actually compete with the car for convenience and is much more affordable. If we care about equity, if we care about climate, if we care about safety, we want to expand these systems, as an integral part of public transit.

This is the future of micromobility. It’s not these companies providing their current expensive service.

Responsible cities get all of this. They support their shared micromobility systems, and they hold them responsible through their permits. They require their users to park their device to a meter out of the way, and take a picture of that before ending their trip. They are beginning to require sidewalk detection, a new technology that works, that can disable the device when it’s on the sidewalk. It solves the problem this bill is trying to address in the right way, by preventing the problem in the first place.

This bill will make expansion of shared micromobility prohibitively expensive for all but the richest cities. We know this because a half dozen cities and nonprofits have received $1 million grants from the ARB for “Clean Mobility Options” for disadvantaged communities and they plan to operate shared bike systems, but they can’t get started because they can’t find insurance. They estimate that to get that insurance, it will cost $750,000 for three years of service. That’s three-quarters of a million dollars for the insurance industry, and less than a quarter to support disadvantaged communities with clean mobility. That’s not the way to advance an equitable transportation system.

Some of those organizations are operating just bike share, and they are frustrated that bikes are included in this bill. Bikes are much safer. You can carry stuff with them. They are less likely to be ridden on the sidewalk. And they confer health benefits to their users. They have externalized benefits. Everything else, especially car driving, has externalized costs.

This bill will decrease public transit use, bicycling, and scooting. It will increase driving, and therefore make our communities, and those of us who walk in them, less safe, less prosperous, less healthy, and our climate more at risk.

With respect for the author, and with the important comment that we support the provisions for Braille and tactile markings, we respectfully request that you reject this bill this year. Allow the transportation committee to consider these issues, and come back next year with something that will better balance the goals of the bill so that its impact on equitable transportation is not so devastating.

Large coalition supports bike-share, opposes AB 371

On June 21, 2022, representatives from 20 organizations wrote a letter to the Senate Insurance Committee opposing the Kill Bike-Share Bill :

Dear Senator Rubio:

The California Bicycle Coalition, and our partners, oppose AB 371. The bill’s effects do not match its intentions to protect pedestrians. Instead, it will damage the potential of shared bikes and scooters to provide a safe, equitable, and accessible transportation option for California’s disadvantaged communities. It will increase driving and all of the harms associated with such an increase: increased injuries and fatalities from traffic crashes, reduced economic security for low-income people, and worse pollution in already burdened neighborhoods. 

The shared bike and scooter systems of today do not cause the problems that they caused when they were first deployed a few years ago. Their users too often left them abandoned in the pedestrian path of travel, posing a hazard to people walking, which is especially problematic for people with vision impairments. Sometimes their users, especially when on a scooter, operate them on the sidewalk where they could crash into a pedestrian. As central to our advocacy for equitable and inclusive communities, CalBike recognizes that sidewalks are the domain of pedestrians and that people deserve to walk (or push their wheelchair, etc.) without negotiating that space with others on fast, wheeled devices. 

The problem of bikes and scooters improperly operated on the sidewalk is mostly solved in modern shared micromobility systems. Thanks to state law allowing cities to regulate these devices, and to cities whose permits recognize these problems, operators can now require the user to park their device to a pole, safely and out of the way, before they may finish their trip. Scooters now come equipped with the sidewalk detection ability which can prevent operation on the sidewalk. 

State law could amplify these local initiatives by mandating such practices where appropriate, rather than leaving it up to the cities, and advance the cause of safer sidewalks. AB 371 does not do that. Instead, it burdens the entire industry of shared micromobilty with an insurance requirement that will drastically increase the cost and make it nearly impossible to expand the service to people who need it most. That burden will do more harm to Californians than the benefit of a few injury settlements. The harm is immense.

Shared bikes and scooters, when combined with public transit, are the future of equitable mobility. Where Californians must currently rely on a car for convenient door-to-door transportation, a shared bike can close the gap between a user’s destination and the nearest reasonably convenient transit station. Or it can take you directly to your destination for a fraction of the cost of an automobile. It is imperative for equity and climate and safety that we provide a public transit system for Californians that is competitive with the automobile. Shared bikes and scooters are by far the most cost-effective way to do that. AB 371 will drive up the costs of shared micromobility and make it much harder to provide the equitable transportation system that Californians deserve.  

It is important to note that it drives up the cost of bicycling to the same degree that it drives up the cost of using scooters, despite the vastly different risk and benefit profiles of scooters and bikes. Even if the committee decides that some insurance for some devices is good policy, bikes should not be included in this legislation. 

Bikes are superior to scooters in several ways. Their larger wheels make them much safer for the user. With greater carrying capacity, they are much more useful. Data from shared micromobility companies indicate that they are much less likely to be ridden on the sidewalk. They are much less likely to be badly parked, although, as noted, thanks to permit regulations, scooter users are adopting the long-standing custom of bicycle riders of parking their bikes next to parking meters or on a bike rack outside of the pedestrian path of travel. 

Crucially, bike riders incur health benefits from riding. This is just as true of shared e-bikes as it is for regular bikes, because shared e-bikes can be regulated to limit their top motor-assisted speed and to ensure that at least some effort is required to pedal the device. Increasing bicycling will improve public health by reducing incidence of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and depression, and reduce health care costs. It’s a consideration of extreme importance where the government has a greater responsibility for health care and therefore a greater concern about health care costs, and should be a vital concern to legislators with aspirations to improve California’s health care system and reduce health care insurance costs to taxpayers and businesses.

AB 371 has even more transportation and health policy questions. Why are mopeds not included? California law allows for shared mobility systems using mopeds to be offered to users without requiring motorcycle licenses that are otherwise required for personally used mopeds. By exempting mopeds from this insurance requirement but including bikes, AB 371 provides a perverse incentive to rely on mopeds for shared mobility, increasing the risk of severe injury to riders and pedestrians and decreasing opportunities to improve public health. 

Finally, AB 371 misses an opportunity to promote safe, equitable shared mobility by not imposing a cap on allowable insurance requirements by government agencies. If $10,000 is the right amount, it should be legislated as such and not treated merely as a floor. Government agencies should not be allowed to engage in “transportation redlining” by effectively prohibiting shared micromobility in their communities, which they can do by imposing prohibitively high insurance requirements. 

We are witnessing this impact right now with the Clean Mobility Options program approved by the legislature to improve transportation equity. The Air Resources Board gave a number of $1 million CMO grants to nonprofits and city agencies to operate shared bikes for their low-income residents. None of these programs are operational currently because they can’t find insurance to meet the ARB’s requirements. The Insurance Committee should free up the CMO money by treating an appropriate insurance limit, applied to the appropriate devices, as a cap as well as a floor. 

In sum, AB 371 has severe impacts on transportation equity. It will damage our ability to improve public health and provide alternatives to driving that are essential to our equity and climate goals. It will increase driving and all of the harms associated with increased traffic, including, tragically, pedestrian injuries and deaths. AB 371 does not strike the right balance between giving injured pedestrians the opportunity to recover damages from injuries and preventing those injuries in the first place. 

We urge the Committee to reject AB 371, and consider it next year after the Transportation committees have a chance to evaluate how to strike that balance in a way that preserves our opportunities to develop an equitable, healthy, and environmentally sustainable transportation system. 

If you have any questions please reach out to dave@calbike.org, in the case you need to better understand our opposition.  Thank you for your consideration. 

Sincerely,

Dave Snyder, Executive Director, CalBike

Sandhya Laddha, Policy Director, Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition

Kara Vernor, Executive Director, Napa County Bicycle Coalition

Eli Akira Kaufman, Executive Director, Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition

David Diaz, Executive Director, Active San Gabriel Valley

Debra Banks, Executive Director, Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates

Will Rhatigan, Advocacy Director, San Diego County Bicycle Coalition

Anne Thomas, Executive Director, Shasta Living Streets

Rick Ellison, Bike SLO County, Bike SLO County Central

Kevin Hamilton, Co-Director & Co-Founder, California Asthma Collaborative

Marven Norman, Executive Director, Inland Empire Biking Alliance

Colin Bogart, Steering Committee Member, Pasadena Complete Streets Coalition

Matthew Baker, Policy Director, Planning and Conservation League

Jonathan Matz, California Senior Policy Manager, Safe Routes Partnership

Tarrell Kullaway, Executive Director, Marin County Bike Coalition

Heather Deutsch, Executive Director, SBBIKE+COAST

Justin Hu-Nguyen, Director of Advocacy, San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

Asha Chandy, Advocate, Bike Bakersfield

Amy Thompson, Transportation Policy, TransForm

Kris Fortin, Project Director, Santa Ana Active Streets

Jesse Rosenberg, General Manager, Santa Barbara BCycle

Andres Ramirez, Executive Director, People for Mobility Justice

https://www.calbike.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/bike-share-narrow.jpg 481 1024 Jared Sanchez https://www.calbike.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/calbike-logo.png Jared Sanchez2022-06-27 15:43:162022-06-29 10:47:46Voices of the Coalition Opposed to Kill Bike-Share Bill

Shared Micromobility: the Future of Equitable Transportation  

June 1, 2022/by Kevin Claxton

The only convenient choice for most trips in most California communities is the automobile. For door-to-door access, public buses and trains can’t compete. This car-dependent system forces Californians to incur extremely high expenses and miserable traffic as drivers. It leads to severe pollution, bad health outcomes, and dangerous streets.

People in disadvantaged communities, disproportionately Black and brown people, endure the worst consequences. They live on the most dangerous streets, with the worst pollution, and suffer the most severe economic burden of automobile dependence, sacrificing a better quality of life to fill their gas tank and maintain their automobile.

California’s shared micromobility isn’t perfect, but it’s headed in the right direction

Shared micromobility can transform this. High-quality electric bikes can connect people to their destinations quickly and conveniently. Combined with public transit, they can make even long trips fast and easy. If priced like public transit, they will provide affordable and accessible public transportation that is a realistic alternative to the car for most people.

The shared bikes and scooters we see today are just the beginning. These lightweight, affordable devices, combined with public transit, are the future of equitable mobility. 

However, there is much that is not right about our shared bike and scooter systems:

  • They’re too expensive.
  • They are not safe enough.
  • They are too often improperly parked, causing a hazard to pedestrians.
  • All too often, they don’t serve the neighborhoods most in need of additional transportation options.

California must address these problems to expand shared micromobility and provide Californians with convenient mobility to replace their car trips with bike and transit trips. CalBike is committed to this expansion of shared micromobility as essential to our mission of creating equitable communities where bicycling enables people to live a healthy and joyful life. 

Unfortunately, California is poised to kill this vision.

Bike-share is under threat

A bill in the Assembly, AB 371, attempts to support pedestrians injured by users of shared bikes and scooters by requiring the system operators — transit agencies, nonprofits, and private corporations alike — to carry an insurance policy to cover damages caused by their users regardless of the fault of the operator. It is unprecedented insurance that will make shared micromobility prohibitively expensive and penalize the very transportation option that can help reduce automobile use and the severe injuries and health damage caused by our over-reliance on cars. It does nothing to address the real problems of shared micromobility and, worse, makes it impossible to address the issue of affordability. 



CalBike’s vision for equitable bike sharing systems

California can implement equitable shared micromobility, and at CalBike, we’re working toward that goal. Here are steps to create bike and scooter sharing systems that work for everyone.

1. Subsidize shared micromobility like public transit.

Incorporating shared bikes and scooters into the transit fare can help people access rapid and frequent bus and train lines or serve independently as affordable door-to-door transportation that is more convenient than public transit. Equitable shared micromobility systems will increase transit ridership, reduce automobile use, and reduce the economic burden imposed on low-income Californians with poor public transit. Whether the shared micromobility system is owned and operated by the transit agency or through a public-private partnership, subsidizing shared bike and scooter trips is one of the most cost-effective ways to help people reduce the expense and environmental impact of car use. 

2. Make it safer. 

Too many streets are still designed for fast motor vehicle traffic at the expense of safety. In California, injuries and fatalities to bicyclists and pedestrians are higher than in most industrialized nations. Cities and counties must expedite the creation of protected bikeways so that people can choose to bike or work for their short trips without fear of getting hit by a distracted or reckless driver. 

The problem is not the inherent safety of bicycling or even shared bikes. Data from shared bike systems in the United States show that shared bike users have fewer crashes per trip than riders on privately-owned bikes. 

3. Give preference to bikes, including e-bikes. 

In a typical work week, an easy ten-minute trip to a transit station and back will generate most of the physical activity that the CDC recommends for health. This intervention, worthwhile for its economic and transportation benefits, will also save Californians millions of dollars in health care costs. The intervention is effective even with the use of electric-assist bikes. Studies show their users also get exercise, and, if the motor-assisted top speed is limited to the speed of a regular bicycle (approximately 17 mph), e-bikes are no more dangerous than traditional bikes. 

4. Enforce regulations to ensure safe sidewalks.

Riders need to operate scooters and bikes on sidewalks in most areas in California, and they should park them out of the pathway of pedestrian travel. Carelessly parked scooters and bikes are especially hazardous for people with vision impairments. That was a severe problem when these devices were first dropped on city streets, often without permission from the local authorities. Today, many shared mobility operating permits require users to park their devices on a pole or at a station where they are out of the way and document such safe parking with a photo to end the rental. These regulations are allowed by existing California law (AB 1286, 2020) and should be standard across the state. Most crucially, they must be enforced.

AB 371 includes a provision to require scooters and bike-share companies to identify each vehicle with a unique number in Braille so that vision-impaired pedestrians can report improperly parked devices. That is a simple provision that CalBike supports. However, a better solution is to prevent the hazard in the first place. Sidewalks must always be free of obstacles, including illegally parked cars. 

Support equitable shared micromobility because our future depends on it

Everyone deserves to walk wherever they want on safe sidewalks free of hazards and obstacles. They deserve to be able to cross the street without fear of getting hit. Critically, they deserve a future that is not ravaged by climate change. This security is dependent upon a reduction in automobile use. We must reduce traffic to slow speeds, build protected bikeways and better transit, wider sidewalks, and better crosswalks. 

Without shared micromobility, we will not reduce Californians’ debilitating dependence upon automobiles. We support the intent of AB 371 to protect pedestrians. As currently drafted, however, it will destroy the potential that shared micromobility has to transform our transportation system to improve the health and safety of everyone who uses our streets. 

https://www.calbike.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/44006449071_58830a130d_z.jpg 427 640 Kevin Claxton https://www.calbike.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/calbike-logo.png Kevin Claxton2022-06-01 17:28:012022-06-02 12:22:22Shared Micromobility: the Future of Equitable Transportation  

AB 371 Goes Dormant and Bike Share Lives — for Now

July 19, 2021/by Kevin Claxton

Thanks to CalBike and the “all-powerful bicycle lobby,” AB 371, the Kill Bike Share Bill, has halted its journey through the California legislature. The bill included a burdensome and unfair insurance requirement for bike and scooter sharing systems that would have ended shared micromobility in California. The bad news is that we might have to fight this fight all over again next year.

Kill Bike Share Bill could return in 2022

AB 371 isn’t technically dead — it is a two-year bill, which gives it another chance to pass the legislature in the 2022 legislative session. 

A lot could happen between now and 2022. The bill’s author could decide not to bring it back, or he could revise it to remove the insurance requirement. CalBike will continue to work hard for one of those outcomes.

However, unprecedented bike share operator indemnity seems to be a zombie idea that just won’t die. CalBike and our allies succeeded in excising a similar insurance requirement from a bill in 2020, and yet it came back again in AB 371.

Contradictory California policies

California desperately needs more carbon-free transportation options to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change. To further that goal, the state’s recently-announced Clean Mobility Opportunity (CMO) grants included several bike sharing programs. 

Ironically, the insurance requirements in AB 371 are at odds with the state’s policies because they would put an end to all bike share in California. The insurance requirement, as currently written, would make system operators liable not only for accidents related to equipment failure but for those caused by bike share users. Such an insurance policy doesn’t currently exist and, if it did, it would be so expensive that it would make bike and scooter sharing systems impossible to operate. This would not only put venture capital-backed systems like Lime and Lyft out of business; it would also end the LA Metro municipal bike share and close down the very projects California’s CMO has funded.

Bike sharing systems have a tremendous safety record. A 2016 study found that bike share riders are less likely to get into accidents than people on their own bikes. If legislators are worried about traffic injuries not covered by insurance, shared micromobility is not the target with the most significant impact. 

About 16.6% of California motorists are uninsured — the tenth highest rate in the nation. That’s almost 2.5 million uninsured, 3000-pound, gas-powered vehicles on our streets. There’s a problem worth solving.

https://www.calbike.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/E-bikes.jpg 1365 2048 Kevin Claxton https://www.calbike.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/calbike-logo.png Kevin Claxton2021-07-19 16:35:532022-06-01 17:24:22AB 371 Goes Dormant and Bike Share Lives — for Now

AB 371 Could Deal Fatal Blow to Bike/Scooter Sharing

June 8, 2021/by Kevin Claxton

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UPDATED: July 7, 2021

AB 371 Could Deal Fatal Blow to Bike/Scooter Sharing

Sacramento – The California Bicycle Coalition (CalBike) opposes AB 371 by Assembly Member Jones-Sawyer that would impose an onerous insurance burden on shared-mobility providers and likely put them out of business across the state. A similar provision was defeated in the 2020 legislature.

The bill is now headed to the Senate Committees on Judiciary and Insurance. 

Dave Snyder, executive director, CalBike:

“Shared bikes and scooters are a critical complement to public transit. We’ve only just begun to see the benefit that we’ll enjoy once we expand these systems and integrate them with transit. Unfortunately, we may never see that future if AB 371 passes. It will place unprecedented insurance requirements on bike- and scooter-share systems that would end this vital last-mile transportation option in California.

Private and Public Micromobility Systems Threatened

The insurance requirement will apply to nonprofit services, like bicycle libraries that lend out bikes on a short-term basis to low-income neighborhood residents, as well as public transit agencies like LA Metro, and private providers like Spin or Bird. It would put them all out of the shared micromobility business and kill this promising low-impact, low-cost transportation mode. This comes just when we need it the most and when bikeshare systems are reporting record ridership.

Update: View our OpEd produced in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition and TransForm.

https://www.calbike.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/bike-share-narrow.jpg 481 1024 Kevin Claxton https://www.calbike.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/calbike-logo.png Kevin Claxton2021-06-08 10:00:002021-07-07 08:00:44AB 371 Could Deal Fatal Blow to Bike/Scooter Sharing

CalBike Members Get 30% Off Micromobility America 2020

February 20, 2020/by Kevin Claxton

Micromobility America logoMicromobility America returns to Richmond, CA, for the largest-ever gathering of people specifically focused on new modes of urban mobility.

Important note: The 2020 Micromobility America conference has been rescheduled from April 22-23 to July 16-17, due to coronavirus concerns.

Speakers include Lime president Joe Kraus, Curbed editor Alissa Walker, Strava data leader Cathy Tanimura, and many more. View the full agenda here. 

CalBike is a media partner and, for a limited time, our followers can take an extra 30% off tickets by registering using this link. Come join us for two days of expos, meet-ups, new vehicle demos, presentations, and panels. The 30% offer ends May 1. 

Micromobility America

https://www.calbike.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/amsterdam_poster-01-2.png 4997 3544 Kevin Claxton https://www.calbike.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/calbike-logo.png Kevin Claxton2020-02-20 15:07:032020-03-17 15:23:40CalBike Members Get 30% Off Micromobility America 2020

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