WILMINGTON — Plans are moving forward for a bike-sharing program to launch in Wilmington, but as cities across the state and country have run into issues with so-called scooter-sharing programs Wilmington has created an interdepartmental group to address any concerns before they show up on the streets.
Related: Bike-sharing program could be on its way to downtown Wilmington
Plans for a bike-sharing program have been in the works for more than a year when the Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (WMPO) issued a request for proposals to bring a program to the region, four companies responded.
“In June 2018, the selection committee selected Zagster as [the] recommended vendor for WMPO member jurisdictions. This recommendation was presented to the MPO Board in July 2018. At that time, I requested interest from our Board members and the City of Wilmington expressed an interest in a program. In August, staff presented this recommendation to the Wilmington City Council and was given direction to pursue a program in the City of Wilmington. An agreement with Zagster has been drafted and is under review,” Executive Director of the WMPO Mike Kozlosky said.
Potential problems
Bike-sharing programs are not a new thing, but the popularity of the programs have increased in the past few years, especially in large metropolitan areas. But these programs are not without their flaws.
There are two types of bike-sharing programs, a docked program that has centralized locations to pick up and drop off bikes, and then un-docked programs. Un-docked programs lead to bikes and scooters winding up all over the place without a real ‘home base’ for them.
Scooter-sharing programs have caused a significant amount of concerns in North Carolina cities like Charlotte where scooters were introduced to the city essentially overnight and riders were turned loose on the town.
Instead of placing restrictions on the scooters, Charlotte has decided to let state lawmakers come up with regulations for them, according to the Charlotte Observer.
Kozlosky said the WMPO has preemptively created an ad-hoc committee to deal with scooter-based concerns.
“As for the scooter sharing systems, we are aware of some of the concerns from other cities around the country. An inter-departmental group within the city of Wilmington that includes Traffic Engineering, Parking, Transportation Planning and the City Attorney’s office has been established to review this matter,” he said.
Wilmington is also looking forward to the General Assembly taking action regulating the scooters before it makes any rules itself.
“We believe the NC General Assembly will take action on legislation regulating electric scooters. Once the General Assembly has acted on the issue, we will be in a better position to react with any recommendations in the City of Wilmington,” Kozlosky said.
Concerns of where scooters are able to travel, helmet laws, and speed requirements will likely be addressed by legislators.
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