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Like many tourists who cross Santa Monica by electric scooter everyday, Elliot Stevenson, 21, did not know that there would be a fence around the pier before reaching it.
"I was sailing on the hill and I lost power," said New Zealand's disconcerted visitor, bringing Lime, his last rented car, back to Ocean Avenue recently on Thursday afternoon. "[The motor] just stopped. "
Cities in California have followed the Santa Monica initiative by limiting the type and number of micro mobility devices that move within their borders and how these vehicles are deployed. Today, many are testing the limits of a technology called geofencing to remotely apply speed, parking restrictions and even dead zones.
People on lime scooters are crossing Ocean Boulevard at Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica. New geofence agreements being developed between local cities and scooter manufacturers have transformed much of the Westside into an invisible obstacle course for runners. To help the puzzled, Lime has deployed "Lime Patrol" in parts of Santa Monica.
(Los Angeles Times)
"Even asking companies to recognize that they were capable of geofencing was initially a problem," said Cynthia Rose, director of Santa Monica Spoke, a group of cyclists and pedestrians, and a committee member. which contributed to the drafting of the city's scooter regulations. . "[Now] it's written in their system. When the scooter approaches this area, it slows down and the engine stops working. "
Eighteen months ago, this application seemed far-fetched. Today, it's so common that Lime keeps employees on hand to explain things and relocate dozens of abandoned scooters in frustration when they stop.
"We have dedicated employees to make sure we are in compliance," said Stephen Lee, the company's director of operations. "The rules change a lot."
Indeed, where the fences are and what they are constantly changing, it is the result of agreements that, although often defined by municipal ordinances, are designed and negotiated behind closed doors .
"These are not in the books," said Juan Matute, deputy director of the UCLA's Institute of Transportation Studies. "Since companies are encouraged to make changes from week to week, it can be difficult for a person to be aware of the restrictions and restrictions imposed by each company."
Paul Richardson, right, member of the "Lime Patrol" of the Lime scooter company, warns two cyclists to avoid not passing near the Santa Monica wharf because they are crossed, the scooters will go out.
(Los Angeles Times)
While cities around the world have begun experimenting with geofencing, L.A. Westside's is at the forefront. But with so many companies applying different rules in contiguous municipalities, the consequences are sometimes disconcerting.
The city of Beverly Hills banned scooters in July 2018, but this ban is different on a file compared to a jump or a bird.
A jumping runner crossing Whitworth Drive at full speed on Robertson Boulevard will find that the scooter slows down to the Beverly Hills speed limit of 5 mph from the LA city limit of 15, while a bird will stop completely at the border. A lime can cross the city at 15 mph, but, like the others, she will not be able to finish the trip there. Those who abandon their scooters still operating within the city limits can face fines.
"We had a hard time understanding the geofencing agreements and putting them in place," said Eli Kaufman, executive director of LA Bike, who started defending the interests of motorcyclists. "There is no educational signage to inform scooter drivers, no micro-mobility website says that."
Many companies designate "red zones" on their service cards, but what really happens to the scooter inside these borders is often unclear until the driver has reached one, said one expert.
Signs along the Santa Monica beach bike trail warn runners that electric vehicles are illegal, but they will not stop. Other frontiers are always changing, their rules and boundaries evolving too quickly to be signaled.
"It's changing," said Maurice Henderson, director of government partnerships at Bird. "Cities are trying to learn from each other. Some are more sophisticated about this conversation than others.
Lawyers say geofencing is more effective than law enforcement in preventing accidents and is less punitive than fines on people who walk on the sidewalk, an offense the technology is not precise enough to prevent.
GPS on a scooter is what scientists call "noisy", a bit like a blurry radio signal. Under ideal conditions, he can guess his location within a radius of about 16 feet. But this hypothesis can leap from one moment to the next, adding a layer of frustration to the barriers that, by design, suddenly appear out of nowhere.
"The reality of mainstream devices is that they're going to be quite noisy, and if you use [geofences] To control something without trying to filter the noise, it will not be safe, "said Morgan Herlocker, software engineer, Shared Streets, a company specializing in transport data. "We have systems under construction without a lot of testing and there is no real safety regulation."
In addition to defining geofencing rules, cities have also secured unprecedented data on passenger travel, a practice that bothers some digital privacy experts.
"A lot of people are now, I'm crazy because I do not like scooters, but it will affect everyone one day," said Jamie Williams, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "What we're seeing now is that cities are trying to get data first and decide what to do with it later."
The draft law 1112 of the Assembly of States, proposed in February, should allow the sharing of data, as well as the current patchwork of bans and regulations on scooters. next year. But whether or not the state intervenes to regulate it, the ephemeral urban architecture of geofencing is probably a more permanent indication of Los Angeles scooters.
"We thought maybe it would be just a fad," said Kaufman, the bike advocate. "But I think it's pretty clear, the agreements they make with the cities are a sign that these things are here to stay."
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