HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/1/2019 Item 09, Otto (2)
Wilbanks, Megan
From:Garrett Otto <garrettotto@gmail.com>
Sent:Monday,
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Re: Item 9 Shared Bicycle Facilities
Dear Mayor and Council,
I am excited that you are reviewing policy suggestions for a bikeshare program in SLO. I think this sort of program will be
helpful in increasing bicycle/transit/walking mode shares, reducing single occupant vehicle trips, meeting climate actions
goals, and making our streets safer in the process. I think it's important to consider who will be the likely users of a
bikeshare program and how it would be most successful. I would envision that a bikeshare could be heavily used by
visitor/tourist from out of town. Once they arrive at their hotel or homestay, if they had access to a quick and easy way
to get downtown without a car we could significantly reduce the parking and traffic burden downtown. Cal Poly students
already seem to be the largest group of people biking in town. Access to e-bike to and from campus could encourage
even more bike trips and potentially lower the number of personal vehicles students move to SLO with. We should also
focus on enhancing our transit system by giving people the ability to complete the first/last mile with a shared bike
located near bus stops. Additionally, local residents that cannot afford or own a bike, e-bike, or do not have a place to
store a bike could greatly benefit from this sort of program. E-bikes can be expensive, but they are great from making
easy work of traveling across town quickly in a healthy manner. I think the NACTO guide has many great
recommendation on best practices that should be considered. I have added my suggestions that should align with those
best practices.
1. SLO City should consider operating on a yearly permit basis as recommended by NACTO.
2. Limit bikeshare to one company due to the limited density the SLO City has. A single entity would be easier to
administer and ensure performance achievements are met.
3. Coordinate with Cal Poly to have one bikeshare company to operate both on Cal Poly Campus and within City
Limits
4. Permit should require e-bikes due to the hilly terrain in SLO. E-bike should encourage longer distance use the
bikes.
a. I am not sure if any bikeshare companies are doing this, but it would be great if some bikes were equipped
with kid seats (like the Yepp seats). It would be great to have a percentage of the bikes be equipped with a
child seat for great access to people traveling with children.
5. Program should allow for a mix of both dedicated parking requirements and dock-less parking depending on
location.
a. For example, Downtown should have dedicated parking locations for bikeshare to avoid cluttered sidewalks.
b. Residential and commercial area outside of downtown could allow bikes to be staged in a less restrictive
manner such as "not on sidewalks but accessible to public"
6. Desire Origin/Destination with designated parking and requirement for higher bike availability:
a. Hotels
b. Uptown
c. Downtown
d. Cal Poly
e. Transit Center and highly used bus stops
f. Commercial shopping centers (Foothill, LOVR, Madonna, The Market - S. Higuera)
g. Neighborhood parks
h. Apartment/Condo buildings/areas with higher resident densities. These places tend to have less storage for
personal bikes.
7. Downtown should utilize bike corrals for bikeshare and personal bike parking.
1
a. Bike corrals should be frequent to encourage proper storage habits. I would suggest bike corrals at each
mid-block along Higuera and Marsh Streets.
8. Allow for dynamic fleet size depending on performance and need.
9. Require mid-permit reviews on use data to allow City to adjust desired rebalancing requirements.
10. Permit fees should not be restrictive for bikeshare companies to operate within SLO. Bikeshare can help with
mode shift and climate action goals.
11. A way to encourage bikeshare programs to be successful is to keep initial permit costs low, but have a profit-
sharing model such that maybe the City gets a small fee for per bike mile traveled. The fee can help with
administration costs, but is also encourages the City to work with the bikeshare company to be more effective at
reducing single occupant vehicle trips.
12. Fees collected in excess of staff time to issue and regulate permits should be utilized for bike improvement
projects.
13. Burden of City efforts to relocate or impound should fall on bike share company.
14. BSLOC could help be enforcing agency to the City for additional office space rental reduction.
Thanks for service and consideration,
Garrett Otto
On Fri, Sep 27, 2019 at 10:07 AM Garrett Otto < wrote:
Dear Mayor and Council
I will follow up with a more thoughts and suggestions, but I wanted to bring to your attention that the NACTO guideline
included in the agenda package was recently update earlier this month. For the most recent version please go here:
https://nacto.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/NACTO_Shared_Micromobility_Guidelines_Web.pdf
Thank you,
Garrett Otto
2