Thanks to Jonathan, Marilyn and Barry for your comments on the document, ReplyToMuzzarelli.docx that we reviewed at last Thursday’s BB meeting. If you would like to make changes to the document, please feel free to use Track Changes and Comments to revise the attached and return it to me. I hope to roll in all your comments and issue a revision this week for your final review.
Happy Holidays!
Frank
On Dec 10, 2018, at 7:21 AM, Barry Wendell bwendell@morgantownwv.gov wrote:
As I said at the meeting, I agree with Frank's idea to have a committee come up with a proposal for Council. My main concernsare: Safety Where will they ride? How accessible are they to less affluent people who don't have a smart phone? How will they be parked? How can Morgantown make money licensing these companies? I would also recommend that WVU students be involved in this committee. Isaac Obioma, the current SGA president, expressed an interest in this on Twitter.
Barry Wendell From: Bikeboard bikeboard-bounces@bikemorgantown.com on behalf of Marilyn Newcome via Bikeboard bikeboard@bikemorgantown.com Sent: Sunday, December 9, 2018 5:55:17 PM To: Jonathan Rosenbaum; Frank Gmeindl Cc: Bike Board Subject: Re: [Bikeboard] E-scooter pilot
I read Franks suggestions and agree with them. I talked to a friend from Charolette NC where there is an e-scooter program in community. He said they have a good time playing on them. He has never ridden them but they do have fun riding on the sidewalks and green ways. They fly by the pedestrians and that is where the friction is coming in. They don’t have separate paths for them to ride so looks like they are just for fun mostly. Marilyn
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From: Jonathan Rosenbaum via Bikeboard mailto:bikeboard@bikemorgantown.com Sent: Monday, December 3, 2018 7:26 PM To: Frank Gmeindl mailto:fgmeindl@gmail.com Cc: Bike Board mailto:bikeboard@bikemorgantown.com Subject: Re: [Bikeboard] E-scooter pilot
Taking a different spin, the reality is that until the infrastructure is improved or there is a really effective education/encouragement campaign, dockerless electric scooters will not be used where they would have the maximum effect in reducing VMT by cars. Consider Suncrest, a rather affluent neighborhood with a large percentage of people who work at WVU. I know people who live literally across the road from the Evansdale Campus who refuse to walk across Patteson because of the perception, which is factual, that it is rather dangerous. It is exponentially safer to bicycle on Patteson than to attempt to walk across it. This Saturday after attending the awesome National Energy Conference at the Law Center, while walking home, I got to experience something that happens on a regular basis in Morgantown. At the intersection of Patteson Drive and University Avenue, when the traffic signal turned red (all 4-ways) and the pedestrian signal indicated it was safe to cross, 1 second later a car blew past me on the right-hand lane in front of me. I am an experienced pedestrian, so I never trust pedestrian signalling, but rather make sure all vehicles have stopped, but I can easily imagine what will happen to people on scooters crossing this road. However, at this juncture we do not even know how to label scooters in regards to the ordinance, but if they are not considered bicycles, that will definitely limit their ability to be used safely unless there are major safety improvements and/or education/encouragement campaigns for pedestrians (and scooter users). The way that people will actually will use the scooters plays a more important role in this equation, because they will most likely be used on sidewalks, more often than on roads, regardless of any ordinance changes, in the same way that it is now an acceptable practice by many drivers to try to beat the yellow signal to avoid a long wait at the light. -Jonathan On 2018-12-03 11:13, Frank Gmeindl via Bikeboard wrote: Chicago did a dockless bike-share pilot in the South Side this summer. This Chicago Tribune article, https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/wisniewski/ct-biz-dockless-bi... https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/wisniewski/ct-biz-dockless-bikes-numbers-getting-around-20181126-story.html reveals some important points that we should consider in designing our dockless e-scooter pilot.
We will need a robust education and promotion program. Advocates expect share bike use to be higher in low income neighborhoods than high income neighborhoods but Chicago saw the opposite. While the share-bikes just appeared in low income neighborhoods with little information about them, in the affluent Beverly neighborhood that saw maximum ridership, Martin Joyce of the alderman'a office said, ""We promoted the heck out of it. We did email blasts; we had local media coverage." and "even hosted a meeting at which businesses were encouraged to have bike racks on their properties".
We will need enough e-scooters that users can easily find one when they need it. An insufficient number of bikes available can make the pilot fail. Four vendors participated. One pulled out because of the limit.
We should be sure that e-scooters are available on routes that have the least risky roads. Having bicycling infrastructure (or teaching people to ride in traffic) can make the pilot succeed or fail. "...dropping bikes into neighborhoods with major barriers to bicycling alone doesn't get many more people riding," said Kyle Whitehead, spokesman for the Active Transportation Alliance, an advocacy group. "Increasing bicycling requires investing in on-street biking, walking and transit infrastructure, and working with communities to identify and address the biggest local transportation issues."
"Our residents loved it," Joyce said of the pilot program. He said the ward also is open to electric scooters, which are being considered by the city's Department of Transportation.
Frank
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