Live reporting by
Nicholas Ventura
Officials present on shared mobility companies' work in Cleveland
Nick Ventura
@Nick_Ventura11
Hi #Cleveland, I'll be live-tweeting today’s Cleveland City Council Transportation and Mobility Committee meeting at 10 a.m. on 3/22/23 for @CLEdocumenters & @signalcleveland #CLEDocumenters #cleveland
10:35 AM Mar 22, 2023 CDT
The meeting is available for streaming via YouTube (youtube.com/user/cleveland…) or TV20 (tv20cleveland.com/watch-now/)
The meeting began at 10:05 a.m. You could see everyone strolling with their coffee.
The Council reviews/discusses legislation related to city-owned airports, aviation, bridges, harbors and river and lake travel, public transportation and limousine and taxi operations. It oversees the Department of Port Control, the GCRTA &the Cleveland-Cuyahoga Port Authority.
The committee is led by Chair Kerry McCormack @KerryMcCormack1 and the Vice Chair is Charles J. Slife @ADayInTheSlife.
They didn't call the role, as today's just a presentation. The meeting wasn't crowded at all. There were just two people. The presentation was out put to the streamers as well.
The goal of the presentation was to put forth a shared mobility. The Cuyahoga County Bike and Scooter shared license. They are in communications with Lakewood and Cleveland. When this program began in 2019, they were very strong. They also see peaks in spring and summer.
40,50,000 rides per month are taken. Since the start, it was said that over 1 million rides were taken.
Bird Scooter spoke first. Everyone on their team was introduced. Sustainability efforts were spoken about from the company. The Bird 3 is the scooter that was studied. It is the newest scooter. https://t.co/7xRhrPQoKM
Caitlin Goodspeed was the speaker. She is the Senior Account Manager at Bird Scooters. She spoke about the Bird Scooters and how they are becoming more and more in Cleveland.
Lime Scooters was also here. Gaziz Koshkimbayev, who is the Senior Operations Manager at Lime, was also a speaker. He spoke about the milestones and the E-bikes. He also spoke about mandatory parking, which is designated parking locations.
Jacob Mandel, who is the Policy Manager at Superpedestrian, was also present during this meeting. The company is Link.
This was a screenshot during the meeting. Gaziz spoke about parking. Mandatory parking was also a goal for the spring. Specific visual parking for the scooters was also spoken. They tend to see a lot of the scooters blown over from the wind. https://t.co/itLFL91z8H
Right now, there is a policy that says each company can put out 400 vehicles. The city would like to track each scooter for better locations for hubs. The shared mobility network also spoke about the hazards on the sidewalk. These include the basics, like signs and water hydrants
Vaughn Roland spoke to the parking corrals and the decision making into the overall ride instructions. Vaughn is the Government Relations at Bird.
Chair Kerry McCormack @KerryMcCormack1 spoke about the apps and put forth a survey for the riders inside of the app. This will help the city, as it will help the city with traffic.
Everyone in the meeting spoke to the tune of where the riders are going and incorporating the app and where people are opening the app, so the app can best inform the city.
Kerry McCormack lives in Ohio City and spoke for the traffic. He wanted to know if the scooter companies can put in ride zones, closer to the Cleveland Browns stadium.
The city also moved the restriction from 7a.m.-7p.m. and in January of this year, the time is now 11a.m. - 5a.m. They don't want to cause crashes or injuries is the main reason. The research has shown that there are some injuries at night.
Chair Kerry McCormack @KerryMcCormack1 asked questions about the speed of the scooters. There is a max speed of 15 mph for the city. Policy wise, this is pretty common.
Vice Chair is Charles J. Slife @ADayInTheSlife spoke to the information about what the city is allowing the shared riders could do. The parking zones was a mandatory step on the companies that have the scooters' part. The fleet policy would be enforced across the board as well.
Vice Chair is Charles J. Slife @ADayInTheSlife said, "Cleveland really splits the middle. There is really no reason to have a car, but I have questions about the mobility companies and the locations of the parking zones. There really is inconsistency with parking zones."
2022 Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) is a grant for traffic and proposes grants to public sectors to conduct demonstration projects. RTA is an obvious partner, but McCormack is glad that CSU is apart in this. 106-2023 will be heard later on. https://t.co/v1LnImWwfc
The meeting ended at 11:34 a.m. Have questions? Think we got something wrong? Send any inquiries on the meeting or these tweets to @cledocumenters. Or email us at cledocumenters@gmail.com