By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – The Port Angeles City Council unanimously approved a motion to bring e-scooters to town, but the exact timeline for doing so is still up in the air.
Bird Rides company spokesperson Camille Didio says they are working to get the program up and running in Sequim and Port Angeles before the end of summer, but it will depend on their ability to find the right local people to manage the maintenance of the scooters.
The council asked a lot of questions at the special meeting and we now have a clearer picture of the rules and how the program will work.
Here are the basics. Users must be 18 years of age. The Bird app will tell you where the nearest scooter is and how much charge is left. It will unlock the device for a dollar, and then you’ll be charged somewhere between 30 and 49 cents per minute that you ride. A fully charged scooter can go 30-35 miles at a top speed of 15 mph.
They can be used on city streets and bike lanes but not on sidewalks. Feel free to ride one home or anywhere else and park it. Fleet Managers know where every scooter is and will come and pick them up if they want them to be parked somewhere else.
We know of no restrictions from using them on the Olympic Discovery Trail. They will not be allowed on the new pump track, and the company has technology called geo-fencing that will block the scooters from working there. The question was asked, what if users park their scooter in a way that blocks sidewalks or in a restricted place? Here’s Didio.
“We do have a fining system. So, there’s ways that we can actually track who the last rider was, and then we fine them $5, $10, and then the third time is actually banned from the app. We also do have something called Community Mode. So, if anybody, it doesn’t have to be a Bird user, actually just goes on to our app and submit a ticket that that is improperly parked, that goes directly to the fleet manager. And then also, on the brain of our scooters, it actually can tell the fleet manager when it’s tipped over. So if there is one tipped over, it will ping them, again, a notification, to go pick up that scooter. So there are a lot of different things we can do.”
The company will start out with 15 scooters in Port Angeles and will slowly add more to a maximum of 75.
Police Chief Brian Smith attended the meeting and was asked if he had any concerns about bringing e-scooters to town.
“I don’t have any concerns at all. I’ve used them as a consumer on vacation. Obviously, the geo-fencing is important to consider that there that tool’s already built into them, to keep him out of areas and places you don’t want them. And right now, if you can ride a bike on it, you can you can ride a scooter on it. We patrol the Discovery Trail on a pretty large electric vehicle, the Segue. So, you know, I’m very excited about the possibility of us having access to them.”
As for timing, Didio said in an email to staff, “We are moving forward…as quickly as possible, but there’s a sliver of a chance that we are not able to move forward in time, as the process of finding a Fleet Manager can take as short as two weeks but as long as two months. If…we can’t launch this season, we will be ready to go for all of 2023’s nice weather!”