SAN ANTONIO – The City Council approved scooter contracts for Lime, Razor and Bird on Thursday by a 10-1 vote, marking a new stage of scooter regulation for the city.
The three operators, which are currently the largest in San Antonio, will each be allowed to operate up to 1,000 dockless vehicles over the next two years. The council also approved the repeal of the current nighttime riding curfew, opening the door for 24-hour scooter operations.
This is the latest step in regulating the controversial electric vehicles since they hit city streets in June 2018. District 5 Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales was the lone vote against the contracts.
“The item came to council through the Center City Development and Operations department - as if it’s a tourist and entertainment matter. It’s not,” Gonzales Tweeted in part after the vote. “This issue is not about downtown scooters, it’s about the way we move around our city, it’s about alternative means of transportation, it’s about mobility and bold vision. What we do regarding scooters will impact our street design and the way we envision our city. This contract limits our vision, not because it is a bad contract, but because it isn’t a tourism issue, it’s a mobility issue that should be considered along with infrastructure considerations and complete street best practices.”
After an initial phase with few regulations, the city instituted a pilot program in October 2018, issuing 16,100 permits to seven companies, though city leaders ended up cutting the number of permits allowed.
City Council to discuss proposed zoning code changes this week
Before Lyft with its 1,000 permits announced last month it was leaving San Antonio, there were six companies with 6,850 permits between them. Lyft appears to have already removed all of its vehicles.
As one of the original three operators recommended for a contract, Lyft was replaced by Bird, which finished fourth in the bidding process, in the final contract.
The numbers of rides and scooters on the street have generally been declining since a peak in use around the end of 2018 and early 2019.
There were 300,101 rides in December 2018, and the average number of vehicles deployed hit a high of 6,703 in February 2019. By this November, though, there were only 82,742 rides per month and 2,636 vehicles deployed on average, below the total number of vehicles that will be permitted under the new contracts.
Any other dockless vehicle operators will need to cease their operations before Jan. 12 when the contracts with Lime, Bird, and Razor go into effect. The nighttime riding ban will be lifted on the same day.