Seattle City Council Sustainability & Transportation Committee 6/4/19

Good afternoon, everybody.

Welcome to the Sustainability and Transportation Committee.

It is Tuesday, June 4th, 2 p.m.

My name is Mike O'Brien.

I'm chair of the committee, joined by my colleague, Council Member Pacheco.

Thank you for being here.

And staffed today by Lavanya and with some support from the clerk's office.

We will, we have two items on today's agenda, but we'll start, we'll actually, I'm gonna do, use my chair's report Do I need to amend the agenda to put it?

No, it's in there.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Council Member Cicicero, I wanted to just highlight this letter that we discussed at our last committee meeting.

Well, actually, I guess it was two committee meetings ago.

that the committee members jointly sent off to Director Zimbabwe of the Seattle Department of Transportation.

And as we discussed at that meeting, we did in fact do a letter, and I wanted to just let the public know that this will be posted on our website.

Welcome, Council Member Swan.

Thanks for being here.

We were discussing safety issues that were highlighted based on some footage, traffic footage that someone had shared on a Twitter account that certainly gave the impression that the new alignment on 35th Avenue Northeast without the protected bike lanes appeared to be quite dangerous with folks passing illegally at unsafe speeds.

And then that week we had also heard that there was a collision involving an automobile and a cyclist that resulted in a serious injury where someone was taken by ambulance to the hospital.

So the letter we sent off asked a series of questions.

I'll just touch on them briefly here for the record.

Asking a question if we felt the design that they implemented there met the objectives of the project and of Vision Zero.

We asked if the design went through the complete streets checklist assessing how it serves people of all modes.

We asked if there are, now that it's been implemented, if they have noticed any shortcomings of the design, if they have any plans to make improvements up there.

And then we also asked how, if in fact, let's be clear, my assumption is that this is not meeting our objectives, and if in fact that that is their analysis too, how did we get through such a long project and end up implementing an alignment on that corridor that made things less safe, not more safe?

We've asked that they respond to us in committee two weeks from today.

So hopefully they'll be here on June 18th and we can have a discussion about this along with we're also planning an agenda item around the implementation plan for the bike master plan, which we had a discussion a few months ago and an update will be released sometime next week.

And so that discussion will be part of it.

Colleagues, do you have any further comments you want to make on this?

We're just going to make this part of the public record.

It'll be posted on our website.

Great.

So with that, we'll go ahead and turn to public comment.

I believe there's one person signed up.

David, come on forward.

Vision zero, the only way to expedite preparing infrastructure to make it safe for emerging tech mobility options is to double the shifts at the S.

Union to get these slow moving hungover standing around working the pay plan off infrastructure projects completed.

We're still waiting for the government to hire someone qualified who doesn't vacation elsewhere to copycat patchwork, bike paths, still unsafe.

City Council needs to empower the Pedestrian Advisory Board to demand the police begin enforcing road rage horn honking tickets causing a mental health crisis on 3rd Ave and beyond.

Plus, we need Pedestrian Advisory Board to demand housing for people who aren't lazy, who would rather run to the bus stop half a mile away than have the bus stop right outside the home where you're forced to listen to the beeps and horn honking like it's punishment for being poor in the inner city.

Maybe City Council should include technology to expedite efficiency of the bus routes to prioritize stoplights for green lights when the bus approaches.

It would and could work at the Fremont and Ballard Bridge too.

It would be great if City Council included priority green lights at intersections so that the buses don't have to stop there.

Thank you.

Thank you, David.

No one else has signed up?

I don't see anyone else in the audience, so we'll go ahead.

Well, I see other people in the audience.

I'm guessing none of you are here to testify.

So we'll go ahead and...

Oh, yes, okay.

Okay, now we're teaching an old dog new tricks.

We need to approve the agenda.

The old dog part or approving the agenda part?

Okay, I wasn't sure.

So I will move to approve the agenda.

All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Thank you very much for reminding me.

Now we'll move on to agenda item number one.

And Marvin, if you want to read that into the record.

Okay, agenda item number one, appointment 1354, appointment of Andres Arjona as member of the Seattle Pedestrian Advisory Board for a term to March 31st, 2020. This item is for briefing, discussion, and possible vote.

Great, we'll invite presenters forward.

when we start with introductions.

Name.

My name is Andres Arjona.

I live in District 4.

Hi, everybody.

My name is Belen Herrera, and I'm the Seattle Pedestrian Advisory Board liaison.

Would you like to tell us a little bit about this position and the appointee?

And then we'll let you talk a little bit, Andres.

Yes, I can give you a little bit of context.

So we are currently replacing a vacant position.

One of our previous board members had to step down given that they found a new employment outside of the state.

And Andres actually previously already went through our interview selection and recruitment process for this past recruitment.

And so as we were looking for positions to fill in, he was a really highly valuable candidate.

And so when the position became available, we approached Andres as our next option.

And I could also read you the little bio that I have in front of me.

I'm going to let Andres decide if you're OK with that.

Yeah.

I know I did that last time for the other candidates.

No, that's great.

I appreciate that.

Yeah, and so he's already been pre-selected through our co-chairs, and he is a council position.

Great.

Trace, do you want to tell us a little bit about...

Do you want to...

Go ahead and read the bio, that'd be great.

Oh, no, I'll let him talk about himself since he's here.

Tell us a little bit about your background and why you're interested in serving on the Pedestrian Advisory Board.

My background, I am third generation, through a roundabout way, Puget Sounder, if that's a term.

I am currently an urban planning graduate student at the University of Washington.

My focus will be around transportation issues.

specifically pedestrian issues.

I am very interested in the nexus between land use and pedestrian travel because I see pedestrian travel as the most equitable form of travel, seeing that it's free, but it can do a lot better by creating more access, quality sidewalks for those who don't have it so that they can get to where they need to go.

So reasons why I'm applying or looking forward to being on the board is just holding the city accountable for some of the projects that they're coming out with.

I'm intrigued.

Tell me a little more about, do you have examples of projects where we're doing stuff well and maybe where we could do a lot better?

A local example on District 4 that Belen's working on is 43rd.

Very interesting on that.

Between Sound Transit, the light rail coming in, and a major employment hub and for students, that 43rd is gonna bring so many pedestrians coming through there.

And it's exciting to see what kind of street narrowing and how to get the bus system through there and whether cars should even be allowed on that street.

So that's an example of an opportunity that we have.

That's great.

There are lots of opportunities facing us and with those opportunities come challenges and possibility to do things right and the possibility to not.

And I think too often when we fail, I think we get stuck in with the status quo and thinking that we can't make the types of changes we really want.

And I think the pedestrian advisory board and your perspective on that I think could be really helpful in pushing us to not just accept the status quo but really re-envision, you know, block by block how we want to remake the city to work better for folks.

So I'm excited.

I'm convinced.

Colleagues, do you have any questions?

Comments?

I just appreciated what you said about how the pedestrian mode of transportation is, in some ways, if you think, it's not something that occurs to people because it's so ubiquitous, but it is, there's an equity about it.

And actually, that also brings to mind that if we want to make it truly equitable, then all our sidewalks and walkways should be ADA compliant because pedestrians with all abilities should be able to traverse on their own.

So very important.

Great.

Well, I had the pleasure of actually grabbing coffee with Andres on Saturday.

So I feel like I was able to have in detail a pretty good extensive conversation about just his background and experiences.

And so I hope that you remain involved and engaged.

And again, congratulations on the new baby.

Thank you.

Oh, there we go.

Andres, I really appreciate this.

I think how we protect and manage and make sure the pedestrian realm, as others have said, a great environment for everyone is a challenge.

This next conversation we're going to have about new mobility, it's a little bit about scooters, but all sorts of things.

As innovation happens and new opportunities come, we have a history in the city of saying, well, It can't be in a bunch of different places, because those are already dedicated to certain things.

So let's keep cramming them into the space that's left over, which is the sidewalks.

And as more and more things are happening in that area, without us expanding them, whether that's cafes, or advertising, or scooters, or bike parking, and folks, especially folks that, you know, some of the most vulnerable road users, or transportation system users, have to navigate that.

It becomes harder and harder.

The pedestrian advocacy is going to play a role, I think, in just about everything we do transportation going forward.

So thanks so much.

Thank you.

With that, I'll go ahead and move agenda item number one.

All those in favor, signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Great.

Thanks so much for your willingness to serve.

It's a big time commitment.

We will be voting on this as full council on Monday.

You're certainly welcome to attend or watch, but there's no need to be here present or to participate at all.

But thanks for your willingness to serve and look forward to hearing more from you.

Thank you.

Thanks so much.

Thanks, Blaine.

Agenda number two.

Lavanya, do you want to read that in and I'll invite presenters forward?

Sure.

Agenda item number two is response to statement of legislative intent 35-3-A-1-2019, emerging technology and mobility options operating in city right of way.

And this item is for briefing and discussion.

You are all seated.

We'll start with a quick round of introductions.

Thanks for being here today.

Thanks.

I'm Tracy Krobchak with the Department of Transportation, Policy and Planning Director.

Good afternoon.

My name is Radcliffe Dacanay, also with SDOT in the Policy and Planning Division.

Kelly Rula.

I'm with SDOT on the New Mobility Team.

Thank you all so much for being here.

I appreciate kind of your collective ongoing work about this question in front of us today.

And I appreciate the kind of thoughtful response to the statement of legislative intent that came out of last year's budget.

But why don't I let you all tee this up and walk us through the conversation.

And if it's OK, as we have questions, we'll just kind of interrupt and ask them.

All right, well, thanks for having us today.

So glad to hear you received the response last week that we submitted.

Specifically...

Friday 4 o'clock, I believe.

Just in time.

We finished a few hours earlier, but I don't know when it got to you.

No, but specifically you asked us to respond to three different elements here.

One was to conduct a survey of new mobility options that may come to Seattle in the next three to five years or so, to take a look at what other cities are doing to accommodate newer emerging mobility, and then to develop a strategy to safely and sustainably integrate these options into our transportation system.

All right, so there's actually quite a large range of emerging mobility options.

We tend to call them emerging mobility other than new mobility somewhat interchangeably.

Some of them are already here.

We are familiar with car share, ride hailing, like Uber and Lyft, with bike share.

And then there are others that are on the horizon, such as automated vehicles and delivery drones or robots, maybe flying taxis or things we haven't even thought of yet.

So to help us with decisions on where, when, and how we expand and embrace these new and emerging services, we've developed a set of guiding principles.

to help us in this work.

So the first one is we will put people in safety first.

And safety is paramount no matter how you get around Seattle.

And our streets should be managed to move people and goods safely.

We will design for customer dignity and happiness.

You should not be made to feel that you are inferior by how you choose to move around the city.

And our public transit system and emerging mobility options must accommodate people with mobility impairments, nontraditional schedules, families, and others who need flexibility in how they get around our city.

The third principle is we will advance race and social justice.

Mobility is a fundamental human need, and everyone needs a barrier-free transportation system with affordable options that help roll back some of the systemic racial and social injustices in our transportation system.

We will forge a clean mobility future.

We're committed as a city to climate action, and emerging mobility services should offer clean energy and expand human-powered transportation.

We will keep an even playing field through partnerships and a fair and flexible regulatory environment that protects users and allows for data sharing with the city.

We can nurture and expand new mobility ideas, companies, jobs, and workforce training by doing so.

We will maximize public benefits.

We want to ensure that new mobility options are additive to our transportation system and do not undermine or take away mobility options, particular attention around our public.

transit system as well.

We will be responsible stewards of public resources.

Our right-of-way is our most valuable public space, and we will ensure that streets not only prioritize mobility, but also allow for access for people and commerce.

So as we go through our work in onboarding new mobility options, we want to be mindful that there are a lot of great potential benefits these can bring to the city.

If we thoughtfully manage our mobility future, potential upsides could result in more convenience for users, safety, equity, affordability, and importantly, they will enable us to accommodate growth without increasing congestion.

However, if we aren't intentional in how we expand emerging mobility options, there are a number of downside risks.

Some of them are the flip side of the potential benefits, but we could see more congestion, pollution, and transportation system inequities.

We could also reduce support for public transit.

and which is the backbone of our system, and we could end up in a situation where we're not obtaining data, valuable data that we need and could use to help manage our transportation system more optimally.

So with that as kind of some framing elements of how we approach this, I'm going to turn it over to Radcliffe to talk about some of the specifics around some of the potential emerging new mobility options.

Thank you, Tracy.

So as Tracy mentioned, there are a range of emerging mobility vehicles and devices.

And for this particular legislative intent response, we focused on a subset of emerging mobility options from e-bikes, e-scooters, electric personal assistive mobility devices, EPA MDs.

Rules off the tongue.

That's right.

To personal delivery devices or delivery robots to transit pods that you also asked us to look at.

So we've kind of generally said from bikes to bots.

In our slide, we did not include the car sharing, ride hailing, on-demand, microtransit, aerial drones.

Those are beyond the scope of the report that we prepared.

Most of us are familiar with the e-bike.

These are the ones that you see up here on the slide are pedal assist versions that when you start pedaling and there's some resistance, the electric motor kicks in and goes up to about 20 miles per hour in there after it doesn't assist.

And these are part of our bike share program.

And these are probably the most common that we see among what we call emerging mobility for this report, in part because of the successes of our bike share program.

Last year, there were 2 million rides.

We've made the pilot permanent, or we've taken the pilot to a permanent bike share.

And we've taken lessons from the pilot and have applied them into the next version of bike share.

So expanding citywide coverage, increasing access to address equity, primarily through different payment options.

Also looking at improved bike parking management requirements.

and increased bike parking capacity, sort of putting paint boxes on the sidewalk and just to avoid clutter.

And then through April 2019, we've got a promising number of bike rides so far this year.

And other successes include the Bike Share Program's partnership with Outdoors for All.

So it's helping to increase access to cycling.

So over this summer, The partnership is going to allow daily operations at Magnuson Park, free rentals to people with disabilities for adaptive cycles.

And then Outdoors for All, with this partnership, is going to go to 10 different events in South Seattle to broaden that access.

And then also, We've worked with Rooted in Rights to do bike share, bike parking education, create a bike parking education video that will be released sometime this week.

Oh, great.

That's good to hear.

I appreciate that.

Rooted in Rights has been an amazing advocate for the disability rights community.

and really grateful at both their advocacy and their partnership with the city to help us, you know, do a better job of delivering mobility consistent with the goals that Tracy highlighted at the beginning.

I really appreciate that.

One of the things that I'll just mention while we're on the e-bike, the bike share program is the kind of continual concerns of where people park the bikes as being a problem.

And colleagues, I just want to flag that I think I might be interested in making a formal request to SDOT that we step up enforcement, including fines and penalties for users and the bike share companies when they're not in compliance with the parking.

It's great to see these numbers.

I mean, these are just outstanding, especially as someone who lived through the first iteration of Bikeshare here.

You know, we couldn't have dreamed to have these kind of numbers, frankly, a few years ago.

And so it's definitely adding an outstanding mobility option.

Of course, you know, folks with certain disabilities can't use these.

And for a lot of them, what they're experiencing is actually a degradation of our transportation system because of that.

And so how do we, you know, we're getting consistent with the values, how do we add more mobility options but not on the backs of certain users?

And I know that my understanding is SDOT I think has been working closely with some of these providers, but I feel pretty strongly that it's time to step up on the enforcement end and hold these folks accountable.

I think they will find ways to hold their customers accountable or kick them off the system if necessary if they're not parking right.

So it's just, it's something that we have to do.

On the bike shares, is there any information, because I know we currently gather the data from end point to end point, is there any additional information or data that would be helpful for us in terms of informing where those investments are made in terms of bike infrastructure and so forth that would be helpful for us to consider as a body?

Yeah, so we do collect data on origin and destination for all trips using the mobility data specification, which is a new national standard, which is a very exciting topic for me.

And we just put out our Q1 report, which has our quarterly audit information as well.

We are using that data to help drive future investment in where we will drop infrastructure.

So we are using the data from the program to basically kind of look ahead to where we might need more racks, where we're seeing gaps, where we're seeing high usage, in addition to like a number of other methods.

So I'm happy to share the Q1 report.

We do monthly reports as well.

And any other additional data, I'd love to continue to have that conversation.

Yeah, more specifically, I guess I'm trying to ask is, would the route data be helpful?

For the bike parking infrastructure?

Well, just gathering the route data, not just the endpoint to endpoint data, but the actual route that's used.

It's something that we are very interested in, but to be quite frank, our capacity to analyze it internally is a bit limited currently, so we haven't prioritized it for right now, but we hope to get to that later this year.

This has been a new project to bring the data in-house, so would love to explore that with you if you're interested in it, because it is kind of a next level data analysis, but something that's definitely on our radar, yeah.

We have the data.

We have access to that data.

And which are some of the...

the locations or region in the city where your data, from the endpoint to endpoint data, you're seeing the most lack of infrastructure that needs to be addressed?

That is a great question.

I don't have that in front of me.

I can share with you what's in our Q1 in terms of where we have prioritized infrastructure so far this year, which is based on anecdotals and last year's data.

As we move into the summer, we're planning to do a deeper dive analysis, but I'm happy to share pass that along to you.

We definitely want to make data-driven decisions around that for sure.

So I'll continue about variations in e-bikes.

So this is an e-trike for sharing.

This is an example of an enclosed or covered e-trike share in Vancouver, British Columbia.

It's being piloted at the University of British Columbia.

Other companies are already beginning to roll out or deploy variations of these e-tracks, both covered and uncovered.

So we may be seeing more of these variations in the near future that we may be considering for our own city.

It's still for one passenger.

It's still for one passenger, yes.

So you can see the internal a little bit of how it works.

There are two wheels in the front, one wheel in the back, and a seat for one person.

Per city and state codes, they're considered adaptive cycles, which are treated the same as e-bikes.

So is that where it's recommended that they should be, in terms of bike lanes?

These would be operated in bike lanes, where they can be operated bike lanes.

This is how they're being used in the pilot in Vancouver.

And another version is instead of moving people, it would be moving goods.

So an e-trike for delivery.

And these are being piloted here in Seattle by UPS.

I got to pedal one of those machines.

They're pretty sweet.

There you go.

I went to their ribbon cutting as they rolled them out.

As chair of the Transportation Committee, you get invited to these things occasionally.

And then, of course, we have the e-scooter.

And we're all pretty familiar with the e-scooter pictured there on the left.

It's a typical electric, motorized, stand-upon foot scooter.

But we'll likely see variations of these e-scooters over the coming months and years.

The one on the right, the rider can opt to stand or sit on the scooter.

House Bill 1772 passed in April of this year, and it amended state laws related to motorized scooters, including the definition.

So some scooters now can be sat upon while operating them.

And then back to the one that rolls off our tongue really nicely, electric personal assistive mobility device.

So if you think Segway, you wouldn't be wrong.

Hoverboards, they include hoverboards, UniWheel in the center picture there, and then OneWheel that we took a picture of just outside of City Hall not too long ago.

These can, you know, most of these devices are privately owned.

We don't have necessarily the clearest of regulations for them and how to manage them as well.

They're allowed on sidewalks and roadways, but not in bike lanes.

So given the rising number of these devices, again, most of which are privately owned, It's probably a good idea to consider reviewing and upgrading our right of way regulations to better address these devices, especially with speed on the sidewalk, because these can go up, you know, can have a fairly good clip on.

Right.

Did you say that they're allowed on the sidewalks but not on bike lanes?

Is that correct?

Yes.

They are pretty much treated like a segue.

And so they are not allowed in bike lanes, but they are allowed on sidewalks and roadways.

Kind of reverse of what we'd hope, especially with the speeds.

The travel is pretty compatible with bike speeds, but less compatible with pedestrian speeds.

Yeah, it does seem counterintuitive.

Is that true in all other cities as well?

I think different cities around the United States have different rules for them.

My personal experience, at least a year ago when I was in Denver, they had scooter shares, and scooters were classified as a toy, as a state law, which meant they could only go on sidewalks.

And then I forget where, maybe it was Oakland, somewhere I was, and they They were prohibited from being on sidewalks in that jurisdiction and had to be on the road.

So it's not clear.

Regulation is not keeping up with the technology at the pace it's evolving, which is why we wanted you to help us get in front of this stuff.

And one of the devices here that we don't have a slide for is electric skateboards.

They do go pretty fast and similar.

They are treated as a toy, so they have to be operated.

on a sidewalk, but when you kick in that electric motor, that electric skateboard can go pretty fast.

Yeah.

And are helmet laws applied just to bicycles, not to other devices?

Again, it's not clear of when you're supposed to wear a helmet for these devices as well.

So I think that's one of the things that we need to review of how it's applied, and again, for these private vehicles or devices.

The next we have the personal delivery device, probably the cutest among all of these devices we're looking at.

These are cooler sized, sixth wheel devices in some cases, no more than 120 pounds.

They have cameras, radar, ultrasound sensors, and GPS.

So a lot of technology in these devices.

They operate at a pedestrian speed at about three miles per hour.

but have a maximum speed of about six miles per hour.

And are these, is this a defined type in state law?

Right.

Or city law?

State law, a new law, Washington state law has just defined what these are and what the maximum speeds are and where they can operate.

And is that permissive towards cities or is it basically saying the state's going to regulate this realm?

We maintain authority, and they're not currently listed or mentioned at all in SMC, so.

So we'll have to figure that out as folks start rolling them out.

We're already thinking about it.

Yep.

Great.

And just an overview where they're being tested right now.

The device on the left is a version being tested in Washington, D.C., and for their pilot, No more than five devices at a time are allowed to be deployed.

The biggest example is in Milton Keynes just outside of London.

It's a larger pilot testing hundreds of these delivery robots, and they travel on sidewalks and cross streets, and they're just treated like pedestrians.

So like we just mentioned here in Washington, state law, House Bill 1325 passed in April 2019, allows for these devices to operate on sidewalks and in crosswalks, but then leaves regulations up to the cities to figure that out.

So it's not too hard to imagine that these will be potentially on sidewalks in the very near future.

I've seen them in D.C.

and they're just, yeah.

When people used them regularly in DC, I was like, I first saw them, I was a little bit spooked.

I was like, what is this?

Right, right.

And then the next device or vehicle that you asked us to look at was the transit pod.

And we included delivery shuttle here as well.

because they're similar in form and have similar issues related to the right-of-way.

But the delivery shuttle, instead of carrying people, delivers goods.

These are low-speed electric-powered vehicles.

They can go no more than 25 miles per hour and operate in the street and are typically operated as a commercially-owned fleet of vehicles.

The example on the left is An automated transit circulator carrying up to 12 people.

This one is being piloted in Denver, shuttling passengers from a light rail station to several office buildings in a nearby business park.

And on the right is an example of an automated delivery shuttle from a recent pilot in Scottsdale, Arizona.

An automated vehicle company partnered with a grocery store chain to test these self-driving goods delivery vehicles to deliver groceries.

You, sorry, in the opening you included, sorry let me go back here, automated transit pods but did not include on-demand microtransit.

It's not clear to me what the distinction is between those.

Right, the microtransit right now in that definition is Kind of like Uber, but they're just regular vehicles or buses already that you can call up or use your app.

Like Chariot or that.

That's right.

So these are human.

Human driven vehicles.

Yeah, OK.

And would Via, is that what we call it?

That's right.

That's in that.

Via would be considered microtransit.

Great.

Then here just to recap the ownership models of the different types of devices.

We've got a number of vehicles or devices that are private or personally owned.

There is a shared model and commercial fleet.

And these all have implications on how we manage and regulate the right of way based on how these devices are used and how they're owned.

So for example, the private and personal vehicles, especially the hoverboards, the unwheels, or the onewheels that we have a lot of right now, we would need more education and enforcement of these existing devices.

And then this chart just summarizes all of the devices that we looked at, their top speeds we've included, and specifically to recap where they're allowed to be used.

If you note, e-scooter can only be ridden in the roadway per Seattle Municipal Code at this time.

Do we have a code around specifically e-scooters or is it just fall under some old category that existed before e-scooters came along?

It's, again, it's not very clear of what specifically to e-scooters.

So motorized scooters are said to be allowed to be ridden in the roadway.

So that may have been more for like Vespas or something at the time it was written, but they're falling into that at the moment.

So, okay.

And then now we'll move into sort of what we, the state of the practice of what we learned from different cities, and generally what we've understood is all cities are experimenting with all of these new devices.

No one has all of the answers.

There isn't a comprehensive how-to to do this.

Everybody, all of the cities we looked at, they're learning and we're learning as well.

But some of the common key things that cities have done are these main key points here to clearly determine if, where, and how emerging mobility devices should be ridden and parked.

update codes if you choose to bring in these devices.

And then, of course, to use pilot programs to learn what works and, of course, to learn what doesn't work and apply that to the next iteration of the program.

And we'll just do a quick overview of learnings from other cities.

Like I had mentioned, there is no comprehensive roadmap.

No one has figured it out.

Establish clear definitions and guiding principles are paramount.

That helps guide how operators will work with the city to deliver these programs.

And again, the pilot programs help cities test and iterate ways to integrate these new technologies into the existing transportation system.

And really important to cities and have been engaging the community to help shape pilots and policy.

And for us, that should be a high priority.

And then gather and analyze the data to help make a decision, especially for right-of-way policy and design.

And then just to reiterate, the established clear definitions clearly define where to operate these devices and clearly define how these devices may operate, should operate in the right of way.

And of course, to manage parking clutter, we've got some pictures on the side here of how some jurisdictions are beginning to address that parking clutter.

Some cities have learned from us, actually, with these paint-in-the-boxes of where you should park the bikes.

More and more cities are applying this practice to manage that parking clutter.

And then, of course, to provide education and enforcement opportunities just to learn the best practices of how to operate these devices and then also understand the rules of enforcement.

You know, it's interesting where we are.

I can't remember if it was an SDOT slide or who shared it, but I've seen in presentations a picture of New York City, you know, a century ago.

And there's two pictures side by side of the same street, and they may be less than a decade apart.

And in one, the right-of-way is packed in both.

In the first one, it's all horses, and there's one vehicle you can see.

And then in the next one, it's the opposite, where it's all motor vehicle cars, and there's one horse.

And just in these moments in our history as human beings, where transportation technology all of a sudden shifts, and I can't imagine what it would be like when there was an equal mix of horses and automobiles, and I don't know if they even had sidewalks back then, or how you even define the right of way.

And clearly, you know, for my generation, we came up with a very clear understanding of where pedestrians were supposed to be and where cars were supposed to be and bikes were maybe a little bit of a gray area depending on how old you were.

But there was, you know, whatever city you went to in America, there was a bunch of innovation happening and it just kind of worked.

And I think we're now at another inflection point that climate and mobility are demanding that we shift how we get around in denser cities.

And it's chaotic.

I mean, and it's really disconcerting, I think, for a lot of folks.

And it's also really exciting for a lot of folks.

And sometimes it's the same folks it's exciting and disconcerting for.

And our goal, you know, as we work through this, you know, in the city of Seattle, but obviously, you know, as, you know, particularly around the planet, how do we redefine this right away in a way that meets our needs?

And I would say that the existing allocation of right away space is not meeting our needs from a climate perspective, a mobility perspective, an equity perspective.

But changing is not an easy thing to do.

And so anyway, the pictures you've shown here remind me of, we're capable of these transitions.

Certainly after the fact, we can reflect on them and say, wow, that was interesting.

But when you're in the middle of it, it's challenging.

That's a good segue to the potential next steps that we've recommended.

Pilot programs, of course.

And we started our e-scooter pilot that's now in development.

We'll be working on that over the next few months.

And we'll look at policy and legal framework upgrades.

And then education and enforcement.

Can you go a little deeper just in terms of where you are with regards to your scooter pilot?

We're at the very early stages of that right now.

So I would say not very far into it.

It's probably worth repeating that there are a number of us on the council that are excited for that work to move forward.

I think you're probably aware of that.

I appreciate the mayor's public statements a few weeks ago, that was really helpful.

I know that she seems to continue to have some of the same concerns that a lot of us have, but we also think that it's time for us to get into the business here and start learning by experience.

And so look forward to seeing that.

If there's anything we can do from a council perspective to help move that along, we want to partner.

Well, we'll speak to that a little bit more in the presentation.

Policy and legal framework upgrade, education enforcement, we'll do data collecting and analysis, and then of course, design standards and right-of-way allocation as you alluded to, Commissioner Brown.

So the e-scooter pilot program principles, these are planned actions and we're going to focus on safety, fairness to riders, protection for the city and taxpayers through full indemnification and equity.

So the e-scooter pilot program development safety is first and foremost.

First and foremost, we'll incorporate best safety practices from other cities, define helmet requirements, create an education campaign, how to properly ride a scooter, understand what the rules of the road are.

This is an example of an education campaign that's been used in different parts of the city across the country, basically where to and how to ride.

where and how to park, and also just probably just as important, where and how not to operate these devices.

So this is something that we're looking at to consider doing over the next few months as well, and as we engage the community to help shape the pilot, which is, this is a continuation of what we will be doing over the next few months, engaging the community.

is paramount to us, help us answer and figure out where and how to ride and at what speeds, where to park these devices and collect data on them, what are the processes for that.

And then we need to look at how we can require full indemnification provisions into our program.

and also look at establishing fines and enforcement, and then also define the minimum thresholds for remaining shared bikes.

And other potential next steps, this is more broadly applying to all of the devices.

Again, we'll look at reviewing and upgrading regulations if this is where we want to go with these devices.

Refresh some of the city's existing principles.

And then, again, importantly define where devices can operate and park.

Again, to be clear and do more of what you see in the bottom picture and managing parking and less of the picture of above.

And then revisit modal priority to inform regulations.

Can these devices operate in the bike lane?

Yes, maybe.

That's a conversation still to be had.

And then potentially evaluate based on safe speeds.

Could they be in bike lanes?

Could they also be ridden on the sidewalk if they are slow enough?

But not for long distance, just to park, et cetera.

So the photo there on the bottom right, the more of this photo, shows both a marked parking spot on the sidewalk, and this is in Ballard, and then also in-street bike parking facility too.

One of the things that, one I appreciate that SDOT has been, I think, doing a great job of creating more parking opportunities for bikes at the moment, but for probably a lot of devices going forward.

One of the themes that I have heard multiple times in the last few months of conversations, including ones that SDOT have led, is the idea of using that no parking spot on the street in front of the site, the stop signs.

And right now that's, you know, that's not a piece of right-of-way that's really being used for anything.

Although people probably illegally park there occasionally, and when they do it makes it more dangerous for road users because sight lines are blocked.

And especially hearing from some folks from disability rights community, that that's a really great place to put it, because one, it's not on the sidewalk.

Two, it also prevents someone from parking illegally there, so it preserves sight lines to make us all feel safer, especially when we're crossing the streets.

And I would love to figure out if there's an opportunity, especially at this moment where I feel like we have a shortage, to move aggressively to just claiming that space for parking across the city.

And I imagine that the resources we currently have allocated to do bike parking is probably not enough to do the scale we want.

I don't know that, if there's a possibility of not waiting for another year to do that, if we're hearing pretty clearly that that is a priority, how quickly could we deploy a significant increase in parking and it's, at every intersection there would be spots and that could really help with some of the challenges and I would be certainly willing to champion some of that on the council's end if we need, whether it's budget financing or other regulatory things.

That's great.

And yeah, we love your support.

And we have been working opportunistically when those opportunities present where there's already something else happening, or we hear from our safety or Vision Zero team.

Wyatt and Joel have been taking advantage of that.

But yeah, we want to do more.

We're doing, going pretty fast, actually.

We're hitting, our goal is 1,500 this year, and I think we're over 450 now, installations, which is pretty good.

Yeah, and it's not even the summer, summer season yet.

So.

Yeah.

But we'll love your support on that.

Great, thanks.

And then to carry on with education and enforcement, we'll do wayfinding and signage.

This is an example of the trail courtesy that you might see on trails in the mountains.

But maybe we could adapt that to be used here in an urban setting to say, to be more clear about who has a right of way on a sidewalk, or a trail, or even a bike lane.

And we'll include training and education of enforcement authorities from police, street ambassadors, and partner agencies and organizations that are helping us to deploy some of these devices, enforce these devices, if we choose to go in that direction.

This is in your subtle way of introducing a horse share program to the city.

Who knows?

We can bring back horses.

And then, of course, we've got data collection and analysis.

So Kelly's team working on working with that data to establish baseline usage to help inform policy decisions.

And then to require data as part of any pilot commercial and, you know, to address commercial services.

We also probably need to figure a way out to address getting data about private vehicles.

And the picture here is just an example from an e-scooter data from Portland's 2018 pilot and where the location of starts and stops of their scooter ride share.

And then lastly, to look at design standards and right-of-way allocation.

So four points here to consider designation of low-intensity travel lanes in strategic locations.

So these could be lower speed lanes and rethinking the right-of-way.

How to integrate emerging mobility devices into street design guidelines so that they're part of our complete streets guidebook.

And then, of course, to manage the sidewalk for safety and then also for commercial purposes.

And then the very last one is to provide more marked parking spaces or zones and to be thoughtful of, again, how to manage the parking, not only of e-bikes, but potentially e-scooters and all these other devices that are going to need a place when they're not moving about.

Can you go back to the first bullet point, the low intensity travel lanes, and tell me a little bit more about what, is this something we're?

Sure.

So I'll go to this last slide.

And this is an example in Kansas City, Missouri, where they've wanted to integrate a number of different devices from scooters to bikes to any of these.

And so a low-speed lane, low-intensity lane.

So they've just taken the parking lane here and used paint and post to, say, you have a protected place for these devices traveling no more than 15 miles per hour.

Got it.

So these might be pretty similar to our protected bike lanes?

Yes.

And perhaps this is something for us to rethink of where might these lanes, where might they be appropriate?

So it sounds to me that we should be doubling down on these investments as a city then.

We would need to look at where, appropriately where they would be based on the data that we have.

We don't have any data for e-scooters obviously right now, but that's something to look at.

I'll try to answer your question, Councilman Pacheco.

Yes, we should be doubling down.

I do think someone who's been a bike commuter for a while and an advocate on these things.

We've gone around and around and made a lot of progress for sure in the city on bike infrastructure.

But it feels like almost those last, well my involvement in that in the last 15 years has been a mere warm-up to the real action that may be coming if we're talking about, you know, millions of riders on multiple different types of devices instead of simply looking at, like, what's the right corridor to put a bike lane in through a neighborhood, saying all right-of-ways need to have this functionality in one way or another and, you know, the potential for with things like e-scooters to kind of capture the imagination, if you will, of a much broader swath of the public than who've been comfortable riding bicycles to date, which is also increasing rapidly with the innovation with e-bikes and the bike sharing program.

You know, one of the things that could be the tipping point is just that instead of being a couple percentage points of travelers, we're talking, you know, 10 to 15% of people are traveling on these devices and it'll be necessary for the city to have.

significant amount of right-of-way dedicated to make that actually work.

And it's, but, you know, if it was easy to do, we would have done it a few years ago.

So we do, it is going to require a concerted both policy and kind of budget commitment to make these happen.

And I think we're at a moment where we want to build on the successes of the past, but also kind of move swiftly because, you know, from a climate and a congestion perspective and mobility perspective, we have an opportunity and we kind of need to figure it out pretty quick.

Yes, and, so just ditto of what everything Council Member O'Brien said, but the other part of it to me is just thinking about from the issue of affordability, more holistically.

We have such a strong focus on housing, but the second largest expense any individual family has is transportation.

I think when I think of what has allowed me to personally just give up my car is the work that I think so many people like Council Member O'Brien who have kind of really pressed on a lot of these issues and reshifting the conversation, but also thinking about how, you know, demographically the city is shifting, how more individuals can give up their car or have the option of giving up their car is something that I'm particularly mindful of, especially as we kind of think about where those investments go for the future.

appreciate you bringing up affordability.

That's a great point that these do provide lower cost mobility options for a lot of folks.

That's great.

Anything else you all want to touch on?

Any messages?

No, I think that's it.

We will be building on the focus group we held earlier this year, and some of their comments and concerns, and using those as we design the e-scooter program moving forward.

And we want to be very intentional about the community engagement on this, since there are a lot of differing perspectives and needs that have to be addressed.

I have one follow-up question, just since you touched on this.

What have policies looked like in cities where e-scooter companies have agreed to full indemnification?

Can you say the question again?

Sure.

Just what are the policies look like in other cities where the companies have agreed to full indemnification?

And can we bring some of those policies here?

I've researched the different indemnity clauses and insurance clauses in a number of different cities.

Most of them are boilerplate.

And there are a few that have adjusted that boilerplate language.

Oakland, for one, that has, I think, has massage there.

their indemnification clause to specifically address what they've wanted.

But generally, and I've spoken to a couple of different cities that they said this is boilerplate for our ride share, for other types of mobility services as well.

But I think Oakland is a model that we might take a closer look at.

A couple things that I'm just jotting down just for my knowledge that I'll repeat here, just the kind of next steps that I see coming up.

So one, I think we're really interested in the e-scooter pilot program.

I think there's a lot of folks interested in that.

So you probably need to hear that from us.

So anxiously awaiting next steps in that.

And I think as soon as practically possible to get a pilot out there, I think a number of us would be excited to see that.

The, as I mentioned earlier, the bike share parking enforcement is something that I think, you know, it may have been appropriate to have a different approach in the past, but I think we're at a moment where we really need to step up enforcement so that we can get compliance, which is the ultimate goal.

I'm very interested in, as I mentioned earlier, expanding the parking options for these various mobility devices.

I want to acknowledge that I think SDOT is doing a great job and I think some of the ideas that we have are kind of becoming national standards.

It's probably a little early to say that because things are moving so swiftly, but I do think we're innovating stuff and would love to make sure that we have the policy and financial resources in place to do that because I think in whatever direction this world goes, we're going to need those spots.

So figuring that out as soon as possible.

And then building these mobility corridors, what I'll call protected bike lanes at the moment because that's how I envision them in my mind.

But I think they're going to be used.

They're already being used and likely to be used in the near future in a much more broad sense.

But, and obviously there's a lot of work that we're doing on that.

You know, been doing some great work and also we've been challenged with some of the speed with which things have been delivered.

So, we'll continue to work on that front.

But those are kind of four of the takeaways that I see from this moment.

And I think it's really important to think about how you all are continually surveying other technologies like the e-trikes up in Vancouver at UBC.

You know, those are also a type of game changer because those, I think would be pretty inappropriate to be on a sidewalk.

I'm not sure that they would, I'm not sure how well they would do with a motor vehicle, where they fit in the bike lanes, what are the widths of those things.

So that's from like a regulatory thing, like I'm just like freaked out about it.

And then if I put my hat on like mobility, it's like whoa, this is so great for folks with, you know, a variety of ages and abilities.

and needs to be able to get around weather contained in those things.

I'm not quite sure if that was a pedal assist or just a pure electric deal.

That's a pedal assist, yeah.

But they obviously, there's different varieties that are just drive things and, you know, you would never think of going on the freeway with some of these devices.

But they could be the types of innovations that really, you know, radically transform our carbon footprint from a transportation perspective.

I want to be in a position where we're embracing these changes because we've been thoughtful about where they might go, as opposed to saying, close for business for the next couple of years while we think through it.

And meanwhile, we'll put thousands of tons of CO2 in the atmosphere while we figure it out.

So however, we continue to be asking these questions and surveying other folks.

I mean, I know you guys are part of national and international organizations that are talking about this.

But opportunities to come back to this committee or else to help daylight, that would be really great.

Ditto.

All right.

Thank you all so much.

Anything else you guys want to add in closing?

No?

No.

Great.

Really appreciate thoughtful work on this and look forward to working together in the future.

Council Member Pacheco, unless there's anything else, we will be adjourned.

Lavinia, thanks for a great meeting.

Thank you.

Thank you.