CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cuyahoga County is proposing legislation to regulate companies that rent bicycles and scooters by the minute or hour, so called share programs that have gained popularity in many U.S. cities.

The legislation, which is expected to be introduced Tuesday by County Executive Armond Budish’s administration aims to encourage share programs in Cleveland and surrounding communities while also retaining local control over how they are implemented.

The rules would govern the use of bicycle, scooters, electric bikes and other similar vehicles that users can rent using cellphone apps. Users find a scooter or bike, ride to their destination, then leave the bike or scooter in any location, where it can then be picked up by the next rider.

The proposal comes after Bird electric scooters appeared in Cleveland without warning last summer, prompting Mayor Frank Jackson to order their removal days later because of safety concerns. A Bird representative said the company pulled temporarily removed the scooters. They haven’t reappeared in Cleveland or surrounding communities in the months since.

Cleveland is already home to one bike-sharing program: UH Bikes, which has about 250 bikes in 30 locations. And electric scooter businesses such as Bird and Lime have caught on in dozens of cities across the country.

The legislation would allow the county to issue licenses for the share programs and charge license fees or per-trip fees. The fees could be used to improve or maintain the county’s infrastructure for the vehicles, or be distributed back to communities that may need to enforce the rules, Director of Sustainability Mike Foley said. If a company fails to abide by the rules, the county could deny the offending company future licenses.

A countywide licensing system would mean that operators would not have to worry about obtaining licenses in each of the county’s 58 municipalities. Excluded from that list is Cleveland, which is in the process of drafting its own permitting process within the city’s borders, Foley said. The county is working to make its licensing requirements similar to Cleveland’s future regulations to make it easier for ride-share operators to meet both sets of rules, Foley said.

“We think it’s an important step for the transit network and for reducing carbon emissions that these systems be encouraged and organized in the county,” Foley said. “But we want to do it in a rationale, non-chaotic way…that strikes a balance between flexibility and encouraging expansion into places” where operators may not place bikes or scooters on their own.

The legislation would allow the Department of Sustainability to establish how the bikes are distributed throughout the county, so areas outside of high-traffic zones such as downtown Cleveland or University Circle would have access to them. And it would allow for the creation of hubs where users would be encouraged to leave bikes or scooters when they are done using them, thereby cutting down on bikes or scooters being left in random locations.

The majority of scooters and bikes, once licensed, will likely end up in Cleveland, where the population is densest, and where the most workers and tourist destinations are located. The legislation is aimed, in part, at making sure inner-ring suburbs and other locations that might otherwise not receive scooters or bikes have some kind of access to the transportation options, Foley said.

One way to encourage that is the establishment of hubs that people can locate with their phones, Foley said. The county could encourage use of the hubs by charging operators small fees whenever users fail to leave bikes or scooters at the hubs, Foley said. The hubs would then serve as a way for the county to redistribute bikes or scooters to suburbs, or locations in the city that are less popular.

The county envisions setting rules for minimum and maximum fleet sizes based on location. Regulations are expected to set a range for the number of bikes or scooters in the suburbs, Foley said.

Bikes and scooters could supplement public transit, Foley said, noting that the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority helped the county put together this proposal. Hubs could potentially be located at rapid stations or bus stops to make it easier for riders to reach their final destination.

Companies renting car rides by the trip, such as Lyft and Uber, have recently started to expand their businesses with shareable bikes and scooters in certain locations.

The industry is changing fast and many operators see potential business opportunities in Cuyahoga County, Foley said. A dense distribution of bikes and scooters, as well as an organized network that is easy for riders to access, is key to making such a program successful, Foley said.

County Council is expected to consider the legislation in committee in coming weeks.