Julie Garcia | Corpus Christi

Meagan Falcon, Corpus Christi

Corpus Christi may begin charging scooter companies a daily fee per scooter to operate in the city. One company said the proposed fees might make it too expensive to keep its scooters here.

At the first meeting of 2019, the newly sworn-in City Council took up the issue of scooters — including rider and pedestrian safety, maintenance responsibility and what happens when they're not being used.

Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times

Council passed a first reading of a six-month pilot program with three companies, Blue Duck, Bird and Lime, to allow parking of the scooters in the city's right-of-way (i.e. sidewalks). The agreement also set a fee of $1 per scooter per day that companies will be required to pay to the city.

The fees from the program will go toward sidewalk improvements and other pedestrian safety improvements, said Arlene Medrano, city business liaison.

Tim Barnett, operations manager for Lime, solely handles the Corpus Christi operations for the company, but said they are hiring to expand.

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Barnett said Lime is excited to serve Corpus Christi with a "genuine alternative to cars," but the company says the proposed fee "far exceeds standards in other cities in Texas.

"San Antonio scooters are $20 per scooter per year, and here it would be $365 per scooter per year," Barnett said. "It's not only much higher, but it's potentially prohibitive for us to be able to effectively do our work here."

Lime is recommending a "per ride fee," rather than the proposed fee per scooter.

Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times

"The per-trip structure incentivizes the city and operators to work together to encourage utilization based on rides taken, not just the number of scooters on the streets," he said.

Medrano said there was a majority consensus by scooter companies, city departments and community stakeholders on the proposed $1 per scooter, per day, fee.

As of Tuesday, there were 1,200 motorized scooters, also known as dockless vehicles, parked around the city.

As part of the agreement, the companies will share data with city staff, Medrano said. Two of the three operating companies already have provided information.

Since October, there have been approximately 69,000 rides, 23,500 unique riders and more than 120,000 miles traveled, according to data provided by two of the three scooter companies. The scooters have been ridden for an average of 1.5 miles for about 20 minutes.

The data sharing will also create heat maps of where the scooters are being ridden most often.

"There's a lot to learn about small vehicle mobility systems, so the pilot program will allow staff to review data to potentially plan for things like parking racks, corrals and identify major origin and destination networks," Medrano told the Council. "The pilot will also allow staff to monitor deployment behaviors and rider behaviors, and they may consider planning safety requirements for riders."

Corpus Christi has just a fraction of the number of scooters of Austin (16,000), Dallas (9,000) or San Antonio (12,600), which are also in pilot programs. And the number fluctuates — during December, it peaked at 1,600 scooters.

Courtney Sacco/Caller-Times

Council members were enthusiastic about the sheer number of people they've seen enjoying the scooters, but each had misgivings, including blocking sidewalks and violating the Americans with Disabilities Act in the process, injuries to adults and children and the strain on the police department.

Medrano said Austin is researching a rider program that is looking at ways to hold riders, not the companies, accountable for reckless behavior.

Councilman Greg Smith was the first to mention hiring additional officers to handle the scooters, but Deputy Chief Billy Breedlove said that using parking enforcement officers might be the the best approach.

Police Chief Mike Markle said the revenue stream from the company fees could go toward hiring temporary parking control officers, who would not be sworn police officers.

The first reading passed 7-2 with council members Everett Roy and Rudy Garza voting no. The second reading will likely be on the Jan. 15 meeting agenda, but it has not been posted.

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Dockless motorized scooters in Corpus Christi