Emmanuel Remy

Meeting Date: October 15, 2018

Time: 3:15 pm-4:15 pm

Members Present: Jake, Aaron

Location: Columbus Town Hall

Emmanuel Remy is a current Democratic representative on the Columbus City Council in Ohio. He is chair of public service and transportation, environment, and administration. He was joined by his legislative aid, Jeffery Carter, and Matt Erickson.

Meeting Notes:

  • The main issue from their experiences: SAFETY.
    • Scooter riders do not feel safe driving on the road
      • Speed of scooters are not same as cars
    • Pedestrians do not feel safe with them driving on the sidewalks
      • Limited space on sidewalks
    • Limited to no use of hand signals while using scooters
    • Think about the people with disabilities as they cannot get around these parked scooters sometimes
    • Looking into creating more protected bike/scooter lanes
    • Distracted driving
      • Only 1 earphone allowed in while riding
      • Phone out is same as texting and driving
  • The legislation they pass does not apply to The Ohio State University campus.
  • They believe the scooters have been working well:
    • have not seen many incidents/accidents
    • They want to provide as many modes of transportation as possible
    • Lime: saved almost 200,000 lbs of CO2 emissions vs. using a car
    • very popular, and provides mobility to a lot of people at a low cost entry point
  • They have received some issues regarding these scooters in neighborhoods such as Clintonville and Upper Arlington. Mainly people are complaining that they are an eyesore and are driving too fast in the neighborhoods.
    • Lime/Bird has 2 hours to keep scooter in one spot per law then must move
  • A main concern was the people’s right to the right of way. They wanted to get these scooters off the sidewalks and into the streets.
  • They informed us that nobody monitors the pictures that bird/lime make you take when you park the scooter.
    • Bird is creating an automated computer program to check them
  • There needs to be a better system in place for people to use helmets while riding these scooters. This could be an incentive based system or a communal helmet for each scooter.
  • One area of improvement is how can we make these scooters available 12 months out of the year in a place like Columbus?
  • Lime and Bird are responsible for educating the public about scooter use and proper riding technique/etiquette.
  • Lime and Bird are improving in low income areas. A credit system is in the works that allows people to exchange cash for riding credits at their local grocery store, which then can be used to ride the scooters.
    • 20% of scooters must be placed in low income areas (100 Lime scooters)

Main Takeaways: Safety is a real concern. There needs to be more done to encourage helmet use while riding. There is room for improvement regarding the seasonal use of the scooters. Can something be done to make them usable 12 months out of the year in cold weather climates? Is there a better system for safety signals (turning/brake lights/ etc) for these scooters?

References:

Ordinance 2539-2018

Legislation Report PN0220-2018