Motorized scooters are one step closer to coming to downtown Phoenix.
A city subcommittee voted Tuesday to approve a 90-day pilot program for scooter-sharing in the downtown area. The Street Transportation Department’s proposed plan calls for the scooters to be located between Seventh Avenue and Seventh Street from the west to east, and Buckeye and McDowell Roads from the north to south.
Phoenix Street Transportation Department Director Kini Knudson and Assistant Director Brianna Velez presented their plan to the subcommittee.
“As we think about multimodal transportation, many U.S. cities are recognizing shared electric scooters as a new transportation option and possible alternative to vehicles,” Velez said.
The pilot program calls for a six- to 12-month trial period for the scooters, with a follow-up evaluation of its performance.
Subcommittee members expressed concern about the length of the program.
Councilwoman Felicita Mendoza suggested the program be completed within 90 days instead. She said most problems within the program can be caught within the three-month timeframe.
Subcommittee member Debra Stark agreed, and the subcommittee’s approval came with the stipulation that the program will use that timeframe.
Additionally, the scooters will only be available to people 18 and older who have valid driver’s licenses. The scooters also cannot be driven on sidewalks and speed will be limited to 15 mph.
Mendoza said she did have some safety concerns. She asked if there will be any policies against riding scooters while under the influence.
“As part of the ordinance changes, there would be language in there that allows the police department to issue civil traffic violations should they find somebody impaired riding a scooter,” Velez said.
Scooter-sharing services are already popular near Arizona State University’s Tempe campus. ASU Undergraduate Student Government Downtown President Aly Perkins said that the downtown campus will have to adapt its rules to be more accommodating of the scooters.
“Right now, ASU policy is adapting to this new trend, so downtown will have to make some adaptations as well,” Perkins said.
ASU once banned motorized scooters, but the Tempe campus now has accommodations for them, including parking locations. Additionally, the downtown scooter proposal must still pass through the full City Council.
The subcommittee also discussed mass transit safety. The statistics show that the light rail is getting safer, with just under 1100 incidents recorded on the system last year, down from almost 1600 incidents the year before.
94 percent of passengers were checked to have paid for their tickets, fare compliance reported.
Another major agenda item was a discussion of policies regarding non-standard crosswalk designs.
There are two rainbow-colored crosswalks in Phoenix in honor of LGBTQ rights. The Street Transportation Department has proposed rules for future decorative crosswalk designs, with Phoenix City Council approval, only being allowed at crosswalks with stoplights or stop signs and an agreement with the organization requesting the decorative crosswalk for maintenance fees.
Sean Sweat, the chair of the Urban Phoenix Project PAC was critical of the city’s position on non-standard crosswalk designs.
“It is interesting that City Hall seems more concerned about the theoretical liability of decorating crosswalks than they are about the very real pedestrian fatality crisis across the entire city,” Sweat said in a written statement.
Contact the reporter at thomas.triolo@asu.edu.
Correction: This story was updated on Jan. 27 to clarify that the proposal must still move on to the full City Council for approval.
Downtown Devil's community section editor. I also write the Downtown Digest, a weekly column with things to do, with experience writing news articles and creating news videos as well. Graduating from ASU in May 2020.
