By Jorge Casuso

July 22, 2024 -- Mayor Phil Brock on Tuesday will try to put the brakes on a staff proposal to continue on a permanent basis the City's e-scooter program launched in 2017.

The proposal from the City's Transportation Department would scrap the City's Shared Mobility pilot program, which includes bikes, and retain the two long-term operators under an "ongoing permit-based program."

Due to "increased industry wide instability," the City could add operators in the future to fill a gap in service, staff wrote in a report to the Council.

The City has "learned a great deal" over the course of the two shared mobility pilot programs since the first one was launched in September 2018, staff said.

The City now has a "better understanding of the benefits and drawbacks of dockless shared mobility, and policy levers to maximize the former and minimize the latter," staff wrote.

"The City is now in a place to apply this improved understanding and enshrine mature program of oversight and regulation."

Brock strongly opposes the proposal, arguing that dockless scooters are cluttering Santa Monica's sidewalks and endangering its streets.

"I will make a motion that scooters be banned from the City," said Brock, who along with Councilmember Oscar de la Torre voted against extending the Shared Mobility Device Pilot Program last September.

Fewer people, most of them young, are riding the scooters, causing more accidents and blocking sidewalks, where they are ditched at the end of a ride, Brock said.

"On Ocean and Colorado last night there were about 30 (scooters)," Brock said. "You have them laying in front of everyone's front door."

"I think they're a visual clutter, a sidewalk clutter. I don't know why we need scooters," he said.

Brock notes that the staff report does not mention docking the scooters in designated locations, like e-bikes.

Instead of giving "carte blanche" to a scooter program "people have objected to for years," the City should focus on forging "a robust bike share system," the Mayor said.

Brock points to an April 2023 referendum in Paris, France, that saw nearly 90 percent of voters favor a ban on e-scooters, a sentiment he says is shared by most Santa Monica residents.

Santa Monica's “Shared Mobility Device Program” -- which currently has 1,400 e-bikes and scooters, down from 2,200 -- provides a valuable alternative to the car, reducing pollution and congestion, according to transportation officials.

Many of the 125,736 trips made during the first quarter of this year are "connecting people to jobs, restaurants, and other local destinations, with surveys showing that at least a third are replacing car trips.

"Staff believe that Shared Mobility remains a valuable and broadly used mobility option for community members, and that it ought to be maintained and further improved under an iteration of the current permit-based structure," the report states.

"The recommended ordinance modifications provide for this program to continue on more solid footing."