Scooter proposal doesn't pick up steam in Biddeford

BIDDEFORD — City Councilors voiced opposition of an electric stand-up scooter rental company’s plan to install a fleet of electric stand-up scooters for rent in the downtown.

Bird, a company that has short-term scooter rental programs in cities across the country, expressed an interest in implementing a pilot program in Biddeford.

“I like the concept because it increases the mobility of people through the downtown into the mill district without having automobiles being part of the equation,” said Mayor Alan Casavant during a City Council discussion on Tuesday.

Chief Operating Officer Brian Phinney said the concept is new to the City of Biddeford, and city staff reviewed the use of similar programs in other cities and ordinances regulating them.

The proposal would include 75 scooters – 50 of which would be on the street during peak ridership while the others were charging. The scooters, which are ridden on the street alongside traffic, can travel at speeds up to 15 miles an hour. Under Bird’s proposal, they could only be used in a specific area, and a GPS tracking system would shut the scooters down when they were outside the designated travel zone.

“Overall, it’s an intriguing concept,” said Phinney, however city staff were concerned about having adequate parking for the scooters.

In other Bird programs across the country, scooters are typically lined up in “staging areas” along sidewalks. However, Biddeford’s sidewalks weren’t wide enough to have a sufficient staging area for scooters, accommodate outdoor restaurant seating and have adequate pedestrian passage, said Phinney. Another option would be to allow scooters to be parked in street-side parking spaces, but city staff did not recommend this as they believed it would be an inefficient use of city parking spaces.

“This is a real quick and a vehement no for me,” said Councilor Amy Clearwater. She said she had seen scooter rental programs in other communities and there were problems with scooters being left in inappropriate places and blocking access or being hurled in San Francisco Bay.

Clearwater said the sidewalks were too narrow and the city too small for such a program.

“Where the heck can’t you walk in five minutes,” she said.

She said the city council had more pressing issues to discuss like housing.

“We have so many bigger fish to fry that I just can’t even stand that we’re spending this time on it,” said Clearwater.

Casavant said he’s heard some complaints that it’s too far of a walk from the city’s parking garage to restaurants and businesses along Main Street, and the electric scooters could be a way for people to travel from the parking garage to their destination.

Councilor Marty Grohman was in favor of the proposal. He said he had the Bird app and had used the scooters in Washington D.C. He said he thought they would be a great way to get to and from the parling garage, and he thought they would be popular with students visiting the downtown.

“I’ve used them a ton, and I think they’ll work great,” he said.

Councilors Scott Whiting and William Emhiser, like Clearwater, said the sidewalks were too narrow to adequately provide parking space for the scooters. Emhiser said it was a great concept, but not appropriate for Biddeford. Whiting asked if the scooters would have the power to climb hills.

Bird representative Jeremy Lynch said the scooters can go up hills, and “the torque on them is tremendous.” He said the proposal for Biddeford would include a fleet manager, who would move scooters to a better location if they were not getting used. The fleet manager would get paid a percentage of the fee charged every time the scooter is used.

“For them to see an idle scooter is just money going out of their pockets,” said Lynch.

Councilor Bobby Mills said there were many distracted drivers on the road, including the one that hit his son while on his skateboard, and another who hit a coworker while they were riding an electric bike.

“I think the same thing is going to happen here because there are so many people that have so much stuff going on in their lives that they’re not going to be able to pay attention to people on scooters,” he said.

Publisher Liz Gotthelf can be reached at newsdesk@sacobaynews.com.