Consider Directing Staff to Provide Information on the Citywide Dockless Bike Sharing Program and Return to Council with Additional Safety Requirements.  (Mayor Spencer and Vice Mayor Vella) [Not heard on December 19, 2017; January 2 or 16, 2018, February 6 or 20, 2018, or March 6 or 20, 2018]
One of the things that some other cities have done is they've allowed for different businesses and things to petition to put these in. But I was wondering if is part of the RFP process, whoever the vendor is, and I know these obviously don't get locked up in the sense that a normal bike would get locked up with an actual physical lock, but it still signals a place to actually dock the bike. And so if they, you know, if as part of the RFP, they would be willing to fund more of these on perhaps some of our main streets where we do have our bike lanes and perhaps some on Central Avenue. We do have some shops on Central Avenue throughout town and things like that where they could put in for those and that would be funded by the company and could be a place to signal, Hey, this is where you could bring your line bike or whatever bike it is, or if you're riding a regular bike, you could use an actual physical lock to to lock it up. The other thing that had come up is I know that lime bike had done some helmet giveaways at the different high schools. You know, again, if there are through part of the RFP, they make it easy for people to actually get the helmets again. And that's something. I know that. I know those laws are difficult to enforce, but the easier we can make it for people to actually get helmets, the more likely they're going to use them. Okay. Question Member. Ashcroft So something we can have a robust discussion on this comes back on May 1st. But the there there is also a reason it's accessibility to to have dockless bikes. I think I understand the vice mayor to be saying, but in some areas where they're maybe not being parked properly, it could be a place where they're parked , but they are going to be dockless bikes because they don't. Require I'm not I'm not asking for a docking station. But the way that we had talked about this before, when we were talking about bike access in Alameda, that you could put, you know, a place, a docking station for like a normal bike, right. Where you could actually lock your bike up. You know, the the. Yeah, it's a, it's a. Bike rack. Well it's not, it's a station, but it's, you know, talking about. Right. But that could have the branding of whatever the company is on it or they could put their logo. And you know, part of what I've seen them do on Park Street is they've they have lined up line bikes near the bike racks that we do have out. Okay. We'll have a further discussion. But I just yeah. And we can look what. Other cities have done to like Seattle is use that thermo use, striping the. Thermoplastic striping or. Not. Actually a bike rack, but they've actually like something good area for. The dockless. Bikes. Right. To help encourage them or. Right. Exactly. Because and just to finish my thought, the the advantage and there's pros and cons of both. But the advantage of dockless bikes are they don't take up any of the public thoroughfare right away with their docking stations. But, you know, it's good to have more bikes out there. We still on a trip over them, so. Member matters and I just want to make sure that this online by not on us by getting free use of this and I don't I really don't know I'm curious of how they really make their money because I think it's selling information just like everybody else. We get a benefit, but they should be required and penalized if they're allowing underage kids to ride. If that's on them and if they're kids who are required to have a helmet, are not wearing a helmet that's on them. So I think that's what I'm looking for in the contract and I think the rest are good ideas, but they should be on line bikes time and bikes. Me and them around here just. You can go. Oh, I was just going to say in some of these other cities, it has been on whatever the the Dockless bike company to to either put up the striping or to pay for, you know, bike racks in front of other places where they aren't traditionally. But the other the other thought that we had had we had discussed this was a concern that we had had was the liability. So if a child is injured and there's some sort of, you know, something that happens, what's the liability to the city? Are we liable? Is that going to be covered in in the in the contract and making sure because it's a it's a big concern. Everybody just be quick. And I kind of like the lime bikes. I mean, you're probably going to have a few scofflaws, but I think overall, I mean, just the idea that, you know, we can have an easy way to use a bicycle in town and we can do it in an open. And I guess open is probably the best word. You know, it's not dockless where it sounds like it's super secure. We're not trusting our residents to use it properly. So, I mean, just as an overall general thing, I like it. You know, it's nice to see people writing or writing them around. You know, there is some anecdotal because I did see one sitting outside the state building I think yesterday when I left the office. So, I mean, there is some anecdotal evidence that they're popping up in places they shouldn't pop up but. Didn't bring it. Back. I know. And, you know, as far as the helmets, you know, somebody passed around something on the Internet last week that, you know, part of the reason we have accidents is because cars are hitting people, you know, not because we have, you know, a failure of people to wear helmets. So, you know, I think we we owe it to our residents, especially as more of them ride bikes to make sure that we ensure their safety while they're doing that. And, you know, it may not be simply. Requiring a helmet or ticketing or whatever people are asking. But, you know, making sure that, you know, we we we plan automobile traffic in such a way that it doesn't endanger bike riders and pedestrians. So it is that I want to be very clear. It is California state law that anyone under 18 riding a bicycle has to have a helmet on. That's not arbitrary. That's not anyone up here asking. It is actually California state law. So I personally think that it is critical that we take it seriously and. So so that that's an issue there. I know other cities have figured out a way to charge more initially. And then if you return the bike to an acceptable location through the geofencing that then you get money back. And if you don't return it to an acceptable place, that right costs you more. And I think we should look at that type of pricing so that it's naturally and whomever is doing this right is their company. But there are things that I guess that other cities have required. Them to be creative and they can because it's there's technology nowadays. So I think that that's something we can look at. Of course, we all have seen. I'll say, first of all, I do like the idea of having more bikes available. You see many more people around. I don't know if it's any more, but there are people I know that they've had bikes stolen and they can now ride a lime bike or they don't have the means. So so you do see them being used. That being said, you also see them unfortunately. I recently came back on Bart and the Fruitvale District. There was one thrown in the middle of the walkway and you had the picture of Oakland's bikes all lined up nice and neat in their dock stations. And then right in the middle of the path, you had a lime bike that came from Alameda. And I think that's a serious problem. And Oakland is keeping their bikes nice and orderly and somehow Alameda bikes are ending up. Obstructing the walkway there. So I feel like we really do have to take this seriously. It's really not appropriate for us to be littering Oakland when they're trying hard to have their areas. Neat. So the rest of it, I think, is and therefore I look forward to them coming back. I did talk with someone from Lime Bike about can you put it in your program? Is it someone make them say that they are over 18 or if they're under 18 then say, do you have your helmet? Yes or no? And try to build it into their program. But I think it is important to put it on them if they insist on being not wearing a helmet and letting their kid ride a bike without a helmet as opposed to being on our city. The other comments, and I appreciate you taking all this in and trying to build your RFP so that we end up with responsible bikes. Thank you. Okay. Nine B, and that's number mattresses. Yes. This is a consideration of a ban in motorized commercial vehicles. This. The example was a few months ago there was black box on the West End and the complaints that I received was the robotic package delivery system was driving down the middle of the sidewalk and people were walking on the sidewalk to get out of the