SF officials haul in 24 more illegally parked rental scooters

Confiscated scooters are seen at a San Francisco Department of Public Works storage facility on Friday, April 13, 2018 in San Francisco, Calif. Confiscated scooters are seen at a San Francisco Department of Public Works storage facility on Friday, April 13, 2018 in San Francisco, Calif. Photo: Courtesy San Francisco Department Of Public Works Photo: Courtesy San Francisco Department Of Public Works Image 1 of / 13 Caption Close SF officials haul in 24 more illegally parked rental scooters 1 / 13 Back to Gallery

San Francisco Public Works inspectors resumed seizures of illegally parked rental scooters Wednesday afternoon, snatching 24 of them from city sidewalks by 5 p.m.

Rachel Gordon, a department spokeswoman, said crews will continue enforcement sweeps indefinitely.

“We will take it day by day,” she said.

After an initial sweep Friday morning, in which 66 scooters were impounded for blocking sidewalks, Public Works officials had planned to halt mass enforcement actions and instead respond only to complaints.

But complaints were so abundant, Gordon said, that approach seemed neither efficient nor effective.

On Wednesday morning, Public Works officials noticed sidewalks downtown littered with scooters blocking sidewalks, ramps, building entrances and bus stops “with flagrant disregard” for the city’s rules to keep sidewalks clear for pedestrians.

“It wasn’t doing the trick in terms of compliance,” she said of the strategy of complaint-based enforcement. “We decided it would be a better use of our time to proactively look for violations and rules not being followed.”

The resumption of sweeps comes a day after City Attorney Dennis Herrera sent cease-and-desist letters to LimeBike, Bird and Spin, the three companies renting the stand-up electric scooters, and the Board of Supervisors’ passage of an ordinance that allows the Metropolitan Transportation Agency to regulate the scooter operations.

The cease-and-desist letters give the companies until the end of the month to come up with plans to get their users to heed city and state laws, but also order them to immediately stop illegal operations.

Gordon said the decision to resume scooter impoundments was not a response to either of those actions.

“All of them are related,” she said. “But we each have different tools to use.”

City officials began a crackdown on the scooters, which quietly invaded the city in late March when the three companies deposited them on sidewalks without seeking permission.

Since city laws don’t mention scooters, supervisors passed an ordinance that will allow the Municipal Transportation Agency to issue permits and impose regulations. State law already bans motorized scooters from being ridden on sidewalks and requires users to have drivers licenses and wear helmets.

Public Works inspectors are seizing scooters under a city code that prohibits the obstruction of sidewalks. The scooter companies are being fined on a cost-recovery basis. The initial impoundments cost each firm $1,637.

Scooters are taken to an undisclosed location, where the companies can pick them up and put them back on the sidewalks — where Public Works officials say they’ll be impounded again if they’re illegally parked.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan