OCEAN CITY — The first formal step toward prohibiting dockless bicycle share programs and electric scooters took place this week.
The Mayor and Council had before them Tuesday a proposed ordinance that would ban dockless bicycle share programs and stand-up electric scooter share programs, which have become increasingly popular in metropolitan areas in recent years. In simplest terms, private businesses often flood metropolitan areas with hundreds of bicycles or electric scooters, also known as e-scooters, which can be rented by consumers using a smartphone app.
Using the app, an individual can grab one of the bicycles or e-scooters, ride it to their destination and simply leave it where they no longer need it. Others can then pick up the same bikes or scooters and use their app to take them where they want to go. The private companies then round them all back up and drop them off at locations where there is the highest demand. During a meeting last month, the police Commission voiced concern about the growing phenomenon coming to Ocean City. Among the issues raised was the possibility of potentially hundreds of bicycles and e-scooters cluttering the streets of the resort where consumers just left them when they were finished riding them. As a result, the police commission sought the advice of City Solicitor Guy Ayres on how to ban the share programs. During Tuesday’s work session, the council was presented with a draft ordinance prepared by Ayres that would prohibit the proliferation of bicycle and e-scooter sharing programs in Ocean City.
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8 comments:
Wow, those councilpersons sure have their cronies in the bike rental business's backs. Found a way to protect them from competition, no matter how much demand there is for the service. If the current bike shop owners had incorporated the new trend into their business, none of this would be happening. Where do you think these "complaints" are coming from? Good ol boys looking out for one another.
Newcomers not allowed. New ordinance: Only current businesses in the bike rental business are allowed in OC.
I travel to Durham, North Carolina frequently to see family. Within a 15 mile radius there are University of North Carolina, Duke and Wake Forest. Downtown Durham is infested with dockless scooters from at least 3 different providers. They have become a public nuisance as students leave them anywhere they please and the sanitation department is going crazy trying to clean these things up. The scooters are also being stolen and vandalized at every turn because they are small and lightweight. Scooters wheels, batteries, frames fill vacant lots, dumpsters, parking lots and flower beds.
@11:11 SERIOUSLY, I think we learned that lesson here in Salisbury with Day's brainfart can you imagine how bad it would be in OC?
The J1 kids abandon Enuff bikes for everyone to ride.
'Abandoned' bikes should be gathered and sold for scrap as a public nuisance. Same for scooters.
Those actually renting have a financial incentive to return the equipment. Doesn't exist with the drop them and walk approach.
May 3, 2019 at 9:31 PM:
The allure and appeal of ride-sharing is that the equipment doen't HAVE to be returned to the origin of the rental. Not everybody, well actually almost everybody doesn't want to go somewhere and come back. The idea is they want a ride to somewhere else, not to back where they started. Who would take a taxi, if they had to pay for a round trip?
There are buses in OC too, for people making a one way trip, and cost less than renting a bicycle
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