Electric scooters returning to the streets of SF as part of the pilot program

The rental electric scooters, banned from San Francisco in June as a result of numerous controversies, were to return to the streets of the city on Monday morning as part of a pilot program lasting one year. .

Employees of two local start-ups, Skip and Scoot, had planned to drive vans in the darkness of dawn by dropping motorcycles throughout the financial district, south of Market, Castro, Dogpatch , in Bayview, at the Mission and, in the case of Skip, Golden Gate Park and Excelsior.

Each company has permits for 625 scooters, a number that the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Board could allow them to double in six months. The Scoot are red and black, while the Skip are black, blue and yellow. Users can book them through the company's apps, paying $ 1 to unlock them and 15 cents a minute to use them.

"I'm pumped, they come back," said Nick Abouzeid, who used to use electronic scooters to travel from Hayes Valley to his job as a technical writer in the financial district.

The scooter program avoided a last-minute setback Friday when a San Francisco judge dismissed a claim from Lime – a local scooter company that had been ruled out in the city's licensing process – of temporarily block the return of scooters.

"Shared" electronic scooters have become a phenomenon of transport this year, available in dozens of cities around the world. Some scooter companies, such as Lime, of San Francisco, and Santa Bird, of Santa Monica, have raised valuations of $ 1 billion or more, as investors bet that many people will use them for short trips.

But San Francisco, the home town of several startups, had a confrontational relationship after thousands of scooters were released here in March. Fans loved the ease of movement, but others lamented blocking sidewalks and scared pedestrians when cyclists hurtled down the sidewalks. The city banned them from participating in the development of the pilot program and application process, which attracted a dozen companies seeking five licenses.

The MTA said Skip and Scoot had the strongest applications, citing safety, training motorcyclists and access to the disadvantaged. Three of the rejected candidates – Lime, Spin and Uber's Jump – appealed their rejections, while Lyft wrote to the mayor asking to be added to the licensed cohort.

The two companies that received approval from the transit agency promised to share data with the city on the location, timing and distance of the scooters. They are also committed to protecting the privacy of users, ensuring access for disadvantaged communities and, perhaps most importantly, ensuring that their passengers comply with rules such as not riding. on the sidewalks and comply with the MTA's seven-page directive on vehicle parking.

"We will be watching the use of scooters closely for the next 12 months, and how companies can be held accountable for the promises they have made," said Tom Maguire, Director of Sustainable Roads for Canada. 'agency. "We certainly hope scooters will be a great option to help people get around San Francisco safely, but we have to prove it with data."

Scoot vehicles have replaceable batteries. Its employees will crisscross the city in search of low power scooters and simply replace the batteries, which means that scooters will be available around the clock, seven days a week. (The scooters of both companies have headlights and taillights, as well as reflectors, for the night.)

Skip, like most other scooter manufacturers in the world, recovers scooters at night for a plug-in load, using a combination of employees and freelancers, whom Skip calls "rangers."

"Scooters are an incredible complement to the transportation systems we have today, rather than engulfing roads with individual cars," said Sanjay Dastoor, CEO and co-founder of Skip. The company operates electric scooter parks in Portland, Oregon and Washington, DC, and offers smaller programs in San Jose, Oakland and Berkeley. "They are light, easy to use, practical and fun."

The Scoot two-wheelers have a unique large number on the stem (their version of a license plate), so passersby who witness bad behavior or poor parking may report the scooter involved. Skip also have unique numbers, but they are less visible.

"We are very excited to introduce a whole new group of people into the Scoot family," said Michael Keating, CEO and founder of Scoot. The company also offers the rental of applications for nearly 1,000 electric mopeds sitting in San Francisco. She recently started renting mopeds and e-bikes in Barcelona and plans to rent electric scooters in Santiago de Chile this month, possibly adding e-bikes and mopeds.

Both companies have sensors to detect scooter rollovers. They also have street teams to distribute free helmets and provide them on request. Under a California law effective January 1, adult drivers of electric scooters will no longer have to wear helmets. But because the state has not denied the laws of physics, runners can still want to protect their heads.

"This type of transportation presents specific risks because its wheels are much smaller than bicycles," said Thom Rickert, Emerging Risk Specialist at Trident Public Risk Solutions, which provides insurance for cities, school districts and schools. Other public entities. "The same flaw on the road as you had on a no-effect bike could knock down a scooter."

While users take responsibility for their own bodily risks when they commit to driving, serious accidents will likely eventually trigger lawsuits that will further clarify liability, Rickert said. Already, the country's emergency rooms are reporting an increase in scooter-related injuries for both cyclists and bystanders.

Ignore and Scoot require new users to watch animations and videos about local laws and desired behavior.

Both systems are testing features for years to come, such as integrated locks requiring users to affix scooters to racks or poles. Scoot is considering a way to provide helmets with scooters, such as lockable boxes on his moped rentals.

Abouzeid, a San Francisco resident and scooter user, has already signed up to help collect and load the Skip scooters, but fears that the number of devices allocated by the city may be too low.

"These things really only work on a large scale," he said. "If I'm counting on a new mode of transportation, I need to know that I can find one at any time. The less there is, the less likely it will be.

Maguire of the MTA remains optimistic. "We all know that we need to find new ways to move," he said. "These companies say they want to be part of this solution. that's what this pilot will teach us. "