The recent dockless electric scooter and bike revolution created a solution many civic leaders were looking for: a multi-modal, efficient, affordable and emissions-free transportation option that is available to everyone and solves the problem of getting people to and from the first and last mile of their journeys to public transportation.

However, as soon as Angelenos started using this new mode of transportation, everyone panicked.

Most of those concerned cited safety as their primary issue with dockless scooters- they disrupt traffic when ridden in traffic lanes, cause conflict when taken on the sidewalk by scofflaw riders, and cause accessibility issues when parked in all kinds of inappropriate places.

I understand these sentiments, because I see all the same issues on our streets and sidewalks — with cars. Cars clog our streets everyday in traffic jams which are only made worse when collisions occur. I see cars parked on the sidewalk and on front lawns all the time.

The worst part about cars is the manner in whic*h people are severely injured or even killed due to vehicle collisions. This isn’t some abstract problem — we have good hard evidence that children in America are twice as likely to die in traffic collisions relative to other affluent nations. Traffic collisions are the leading cause of death for children ages 2-14 in Los Angeles.

So while I get the concern for safety on scooters, it strikes me as misplaced to blame the scooters rather than the 4,000-pound steel machines that are actually hurting people.

I fully support dockless technology and have been begging companies like Lime to bring their electric scooters to my district. My office launched the first pilot program in the city with Lime last November and it has been very successful. There was minimal negative feedback from our community members and over 5,000 active riders in the first month of its debut.

We need to reduce traffic congestion not by building more traffic lanes, but by reducing car trips and that means creating multi-modal options that make public transportation available to more of our population.

There will always be the need to adjust and tweak regulations over time for innovations like this, and for Los Angeles’ part we are nearing the end of the process to enact dockless regulations. The City Council will soon vote on temporary rules as a placeholder until the DOT develops the permanent rules. These regulations would allow companies to put up to 10,500 bikes or scooters in the city, and potentially increase that number based on utilization and performance. Regulations are the smart approach to spurring the great potential this service has to offer.

The Public Works Committee and the Transportation Committee spent a lot of time debating safety regulations like the top speed of scooters and whether or not helmets should be required, but we failed to have a conversation about building a transportation infrastructure needed to truly create a safe space where e-scooters and e-bikes can operate.

All cities must start developing the criteria to build networks of protected bike lanes where electric scooters and bikes can coexist without having to brave the dangerous streets ruled by cars or get in the way of pedestrians.

Sevilla, Spain recently built a 50-mile network of protected bike lanes at a cost of about $50 million, attracting 70,000 daily users. By comparison, the 15-mile Expo Line from Downtown to Santa Monica cost $1.5 billion and boards 64,000 passengers daily.

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Gavin Newsom’s battery-powered virtue-signaling I have recently proposed a protected bike lane loop in Wilmington, home to the highest concentration of bike lanes in California. However, even with regular bike lanes, it’s very scary and dangerous to ride a bike or a scooter in an industrial area alongside 18-wheeler trucks with only paint as a barrier.

I feel confident that my council colleagues and I will make the right considerations when developing the rules for riding and parking dockless electric scooters in the same way rules have been created for dockless cars — scooters and bikes should not be more difficult.

Ford sold over 15 million cars between 1908 and 1927, however, parking regulations didn’t begin until 1935 with the installation of the first parking meters and issuing of the first parking tickets. Dockless scooters will have been in use less than 18-months before regulations go into effect on January 1, 2019.

At our heart, all of us who live, work, and raise families in Los Angeles are seeking the best quality of life for our community. My colleagues in local government here in Los Angeles and across the nation would be wise to follow our lead once again by embracing smart mobility policies that connect communities and create opportunities.

Joe Buscaino is a Los Angeles city councilman, representing District 15.