Special Bd. of Aldermen — 06-25-2019 Page 6
Alderman Klee
| have two questions, first in reference to the battery life on it. What is the battery life? So we know that there is
an indicator, but if there’s one there and | decided | wanted to do it and | went on line and did the app and so on,
would the app tell me what the battery life is on that particular one and so on.
Mr. Briggs The app does tell you how far the battery will take you. So each battery is rated at 38 miles.
Generally we anticipate 25 just given terrain and differing body types and so forth. And that’s what our algorithm
is based off of. But once you go to unlock, before you actually start your ride, it'll have a battery life indicator
along with the expected amount of distance that you have.
Alderman Klee
Follow up and the question is will this be ridden in bike lanes or road use? The reason | ask this question is |
too have been getting a lot of calls from people who actually bike. They are concerned that they are going to be
in the bike lanes and then these vehicles. And I’ve gotten concerns from drivers that are saying, I’m going to be
going down the road and I’m going to have a scooter in front of me that’s going 12 miles an hour.
Mr. Briggs It is intended to operate in the bike lanes. Whenever a bike lane is available, that’s where we
encourage scooter use as well. Generally we haven’t had too much of a problem with traffic, even in some of
the larger cities like Austin and Chicago. But that is where we encourage riders to use, because that is a
protected area that is safest for both the riders and drivers. For roads where the speed is less than 35 miles an
hour, or 35 miles an hour or less, we encourage riders to also use a lane when possible to be as far to the right
of the lane to allow traffic to pass safely when the situation arises.
Alderman Klee
Just a quick follow up. In keeping with that, you mentioned the other communities of Austin and Chicago and so
on. Have there been any issues with those on bicycles feeling the negative impact of these in those lanes,
especially when we are going to put 75 on the streets?
Mr. Briggs Not necessarily; it is similar to vehicle traffic, once a situation is safe the bicycles are able to pass the
scooters because they generally go faster than the scooters are. So what we have really seen in those
communities is because usage for the scooters has been so much higher than any docked bike share
programs, it actually creates a lot more advocates for bike lanes and safe bike commuting and such. So
generally an after effect of introducing scooters to a community is improved bike infrastructure and such. So we
have made quite a few allies in the bike community.
Alderman Klee
Thank you.
Alderman Dowd
Two questions — one do we have any input from the Police Department, as to how they feel about these
scooters operating on the street?
