A scooter has been parked on the sidewalk in front of my house, blocking the sidewalk, and making my yard mowing task more difficult. Another scooter has been left on the sidewalk 2 doors from me, and has been there for a week.
There is a Bird Scooter partially blocking the sidewalk in front of the PACE bicycle share rack directly across from Bloomington Bagel Company on Dunn Avenue.
Veo scooter blocking the sidewalk. Welcome back IU students.
Veo scooter blocking sidewalk
Scooter frequently parks and blocks large portion of this sidewalk, north side of Bicycle Apartments
Greetings. I'm aware that the Lime scooters have a barcode with a unique identifier on them. This is akin to a VIN that vehicles have and which Parking Enforcement uses to issues tickets. I imagine the other shared-use motorized scooter company's have unique identifiers on them as well, because how else would the companies keep track of their products? Why then does the City not work with those, essentially, Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN), to issue citations to then send to the companies? I know the business license states the companies are to require their users to photograph the scooter when done and parked. What is the point of that? Why is this photographic evidence not being used by the scooter companies to then pass down the enforcement to the user since they are supposed to have received proof of them parking correctly? Can someone please speak to this subject matter? I have been confused about the City's stance on why it is so difficult to enforce the rules around parking the scooters. Thank you for your time.
In regards to resolved uReport# 181500: Reply from City: Up until recently, we've been relying on the scooter companies to enforce their users behaviors with illegally parking of the scooters. We have two positions that we are currently hiring for that are funded with fees from the scooter companies that will focus on moving into a system where fines will be issued for improper parking. My reply with two (2) questions: I do not understand Adam Wason's reply in light of what was stated by City Attorney, Mike Rourker, in 2019 (please see below for quote). Additionally, I worked from March 2019 until October 2021 as the main point-of-contact (POC) working with the entities licensed by the City for providing the service and product of motorized scooters, and neither was I informed of any efforts to ticket the companies nor the users of the scooters. Can someone please explain to me what the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for holding the licensed entities accountable for the stipulations in the ordinance governing use and management of the scooters was prior to the recent creation and hiring of a new staff position? Also, why were no violations issued and no fines collected in over three years? Thank you for your time. "At its July 31, 2019 meeting, city attorney Mike Rouker told the city council that scooter companies would be fined if their users violated the parking restrictions. Rouker put it this way: “So just to be clear, at the same time, that Bird or Lime or another scooter company may be taking those additional steps against their own users, the city, if this is an issue, will be fining them every single time we see a parking issue.” Rouker continued, “I suppose if the company wants to move very slowly and pay lots and lots of fines to the city, until we’re fed up enough that we either revoke their license or geo-fence an area, that’s a business decision. But I don’t know if it’s a sound business decision.” For an improperly parked scooter, the fine called for in the city’s ordinance runs $30. The fee connected to impoundment is $100, plus $10 per day storage, and another $150 for disposal. As it turns out, the only payments the scooter companies have had to make to the city of Bloomington are the $10,000 annual licensing fees and the 15 cents a ride. The three companies now operating in Bloomington are Lime, Veo, and Bird." Source: https://bsquarebulletin.com/2021/11/22/electric-scooter-parking-violations-zero-citations-in-over-2-years-since-local-bloomington-law-was-passed/ Additional source: https://otter.ai/s/56nnFv2HQX2elRJ40z1X8A?snpt=true
I would like to ask the City of Bloomington to begin considering steps to put ordinances, rules, regulations on these Bird Scooters that have infiltrated our city. I have seen almost every person riding in violation of the safety rules the company urges. There have been two people on a scooter, all of them without helmets, and riding on sidewalks/all over campus. They are getting parked on campus bike racks, cluttering up side walks, and generally are unsafe and without any kind of ordinance in place, could only cause potential risk to both car drivers, pedestrians, cyclists etc. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45596449 There are known deaths on these modes of transportation. Indianapolis enacted an ordinance after unsafe crashes had occurred. Bloomington needs to be aware of the risk and make stations for these scooters with agreements on proper use.
Large potholes on 11th street at Washington. Caused a scooter rider to crash as I witnessed.
Bird scooter blocking sidewalk