Pomona city officials have given preliminary approval for a law that would ban electric-sharing scooters and bikes — at least for now.

Although existing code prohibits skateboards, roller skates and inline skates on and along city sidewalks, it doesn’t specifically call out shared mobility devices, he said. That’s why officials say they are moving toward a temporary ban until a pilot program and regulations can be established.

“We were all caught off guard when one morning when we saw many of these devices, many of these electric scooters, resting on our public sidewalks,” Rene Guerrero, interim Public Works director, said, referring to their sudden appearance in November. The scooters just a quickly disappeared the next month, when mobility company Bird removed them.

The electric scooters are app-based: A user downloads an app on a smartphone and pays for each use. The vehicles have popped up in numerous Southern California cities where ordinances have not been established, and their presence has communities divided: Being dockless, the scooters are randomly left around town, propped up on sidewalks wherever someone, or the company, leaves them.

Prohibiting them will be give staff time to address nuisance and safety concerns, Guerrero said.

Guerrero gave the council some examples of current pilot programs in the region. Los Angeles is in the middle of a one-year program, have established speed limits and parking requirements. That city also asked vendors to provide multilingual phone applications.

Santa Monica has adopted a 16-month pilot program which requires vendors to provide data, safety requirements, a 24-hour hotline. Meanwhile Long Beach has extended its pilot program and has established speed limits in certain locations.

Pomona Councilwoman Nora Garcia has ridden a scooter with a helmet before and said the experience raised some concerns. She told staff she liked pieces of the pilot program adopted by other cities, particularly limiting speeds if the operator is a minor, as well as requiring the use of a helmet.

“We have to acknowledge in our city there are families who cannot afford a vehicle or cannot drive a vehicle, so for many of them, especially the youth, these scooters would be a quick way to get to school or run an errand,” she said.

Mayor Tim Sandoval asked staff to meet with the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments because it is working on a regional approach. Councilman Rubio Gonzalez also suggested the Downtown Pomona Owners Association be included in the process.

Councilwoman Elizabeth Ontiveros-Cole questioned how safe any regulations would be for a person under the age of 18, if it’s going to be used for recreation or going to school.

“I think we need to tread very cautiously,” she said.

Councilman Robert Torres said he would like to see a monitoring component of any pilot program, one that tracks usages, complaints, citations and any traffic-related incidents.