Click here if you are unable to view this gallery on a mobile device.
Fed up with scooters crowding San Jose sidewalks, Mayor Sam Liccardo is issuing a somewhat unusual ultimatum to the startups responsible for the deluge of scooters in the city: Innovate or get out.
In a memo released Thursday, the mayor and council members Dev Davis and Raul Peralez said scooter companies should use something like geofencing — a virtual perimeter of sorts that notes when riders enter or exit certain boundaries — to prevent riders from zooming down sidewalks and parking unsafely.
When someone pushes a shopping cart too far from a grocery store, it locks. Startups such as Bird and Lime, the mayor told reporters at City Hall on Thursday, should build scooters that can similarly detect the difference between a street and a sidewalk and then stop when they’re not where they’re supposed to be.
“The technology is certainly available,” Liccardo said. “The question is how it can be implemented, and based on our conversations with scooter companies, we believe now is the time to implement it.”
The city, he said, would allow the companies to install sensors on public infrastructure, like poles.
“It’ll be too expensive,” said Kevin Larkin, who was unlocking a Bird scooter downtown on Thursday afternoon, shaking his head.
Some other cities have been overrun with scooters, Larkin said, but the number in San Jose — about 2,000 by the city’s count — seems manageable.
The council members insist they’re not trying to boot scooters altogether. On Wednesday, Liccardo and Davis rode scooters to lunch.
“E-scooters are a great solution for that last mile connection in an urban setting,” Davis said in a statement. “We just want to make sure that last mile is safely traveled and people get to their destination without collision or contusions.”
“We’re not particular about what or how” the new technology is implemented, Liccardo said. “We just know this is a needed innovation if we’re going to be able to protect pedestrians who have a reasonable expectation that they’ll be safe walking on a sidewalk without being run over.”
But while the idea might be feasible, it’s not common. San Jose would be the first city to require such technology, and no scooter companies employ it today.
None of the three startups that have scooters in San Jose right now — Bird, Lime, and Wind — responded immediately to requests for comment about the proposal, which is expected to be heard at the City Council meeting on Dec. 18, along with other possible regulations.
While other cities such as Seattle have banned scooters, Liccardo said he’d prefer to collaborate. But he’s willing to get rid of the zippy things if they don’t fall in line.
“If there is not significant improvement in safety of e-scooters, ultimately bans are coming,” Liccardo said. “There are serious injuries happening out there.”
There’s no good count on exactly how many injuries are linked to the scooters. Between January and September of this year, Valley Medical Center saw fewer than 10 accidents involving scooters. But a doctor at San Francisco’s Zuckerberg General Hospital told the New York Times this summer she was seeing five to 10 injuries a week, and at least two people in the U.S. have died riding scooters.
And while Liccardo acknowledges the cost of using such technology may get passed along to riders or deter some companies from operating in San Jose, that’s a price he’s willing to pay.
“I’ve ridden on e-scooters before,” Liccardo said. “They’re fun, they’re cheap, they’re great, but I think we’d all prefer to be riding in a safe car than simply riding in a cheap car.”
Staff reporter Mark Gomez contributed reporting.
