In a time when almost every single issue is divisive, there’s a special place for scooters and e-bikes that are allowed to operate in Charlottesville through a dockless mobility permit. The companies Lime and Bird have come and gone, but now there are hundreds of rentable vehicles provided by the firm Veo.
Ben Chambers, the city’s transportation planning manager, gave an unannounced presentation to Council at their meeting on December 2. He said the permit with Veo was revised in 2023 to address issues.
“Our biggest issue was and still is, the parking of the scooters within public right of way in places where it makes it difficult for some of our users to get around,” Chambers said. “New regulations included in that permit update included the ability for Veo to find their own users who are parking improperly.”
Chambers said there are about a quarter of million rides a year and survey research from Veo has found that about a third of them do not have a car and many are students at the University of Virginia.
“We’re actually pretty glad that they are not bringing their cars from out of town and parking them on our streets,” Chambers said.
However, the survey also found that close to half of users do violate the rules Chambers said are clearly printed on each bike.
“All of the scooters say, don’t ride on the sidewalk, and yet 42 percent of their users are saying, yeah, I do it anyway,” Chambers said.
Chambers said many said they would use bike lanes, pointing to another benefit of installing them across the city.
But the biggest issue is when the vehicles are parked on sidewalks. The reporting system has been streamlined and if someone makes a complaint through the MyCville app, that complaint goes straight to the local VEO office. VEO levies fines on those who don’t park the vehicle properly and now have dedicated staff who look for violations.
“Last year we had 700 reports and they gave violations to about half of them,” Chamber said. “They had 360 violations in 2023. Just in October alone this year they had 240 violations that they gave out to their users. Through all of 2024 to date, they’re at about 1800 violations that they’ve given out.”
Chambers said there are still issues. One has been that specially painted areas where they’re supposed to be parked are often used as parking spots by delivery drivers. The city will be moving to “virtual” hubs similar to how UVA handles their drop-off points.
Chambers added that Veo is interested in getting a permit for multiple years as opposed to having to update the document every year. He said negotiations are still underway and the existing permit will be extended six months in order to keep the transportation alternative moving.
“This is a part of our ecosystem of travel, so investing in that for the long term and we’re hoping to make these changes to our regulations,” Chambers said. “We’re working through this with Veo and with the UVA staff because we want to make sure that all of these work with them.”
One of the new innovations will be a feature on the Veo app intended to direct users to appropriate parking locations. He added the city wants more information from Veo on their staffing especially on the personnel who are hired to pick up the vehicles, and they want Veo to be more transparent with their data.
Vice Mayor Brian Pinkston said he initially was not a supporter of the scooters until seeing statistics on how many vehicles they can take off city streets, but he understands those who are not fans.
“Managing where people leave these scooters, obviously, has been, I think, the hardest thing in terms of at least the feedback that we’ve gotten from folks,” Pinkston said.
Mayor Juandiego Wade said he often has to move scooters to get past them on city sidewalks and said that could be considered an Americans with Disability Act compliance issue. He said he was skeptical of moving away from year to year permitting until pedestrian conflicts are reduced.
“We need to do more to incentives incentivize or disincentive them to put it where it should be,” Wade said. “We have citizens that send us pictures all the time of bikes and these things left in inappropriate places.”
City Manager Sam Sanders said he scheduled the discussion during his report so that he could get the sense of Council of whether they wanted to continue the program at all.
“Some people have asked for the removal of scooters,” Sanders said. “And you all are indicating that you continue to support scooters. So we’re going to move forward to ensure that an agreement gets signed for a six month extension with the possibility that it could be a longer term within that six month period.”
Chambers also said the city receives about $45,000 in administrative fees from Veo that are used to pay for bike and pedestrian infrastructure.
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