Nearly a year after the first flock of Bird e-scooters appeared on Santa Monica sidewalks, the city has painted the first parking spaces for shared mobility devices.
On Tuesday, August 21, the City of Santa Monica Twitter-teased a part of an upcoming pilot project with something called Shared Mobility Drop Zones. The drop zones would create specially designated, stencil-outlined areas throughout the city where e-scooters and e-bikes could be parked.
The efforts come as the city attempts to reign in bad behavior by riders and work with companies to get a handle on the burgeoning industry that relies on the ubiquity of their product for success.
“The City of Santa Monica is committed to doing everything we can to ensure safe, convenient, and legal options that protect the public right of way and keep streets accessible to everyone and free of clutter,” said Constance Farrell, Public Information Officer for the City.
Farrell says the City hopes drop zones incentivize the public to safely park their e-vehicles, noting emergency ordinances still apply as far as punitive actions for the scooters, such as impounding. The City impounds scooters that impose an immediate hazard or are outside of the legal locations to ride and park, such as the bike path.
“Be responsible e-scooter riders,” Farrell said on behalf of the City. “We want everyone to enjoy the streets of Santa Monica.”
The following locations have drop zones or will have drop zones by end of week:
Olympic Drive and Ocean Ave (installed)
Ocean Ave and Colorado Esplanade (installed)
Ocean Ave and Arizona (Installed)
Parking Structure #4 on 2nd Street (Aug. 22)
Across from Parking Structure #6 on 2nd Street (Aug. 22)
The following locations will have drop zones early next week:
City Hall near Breeze Station
Pier Ave east of Main Street
Main Street (Sea Shore Hotel)
Pacific Ave at Main Street
6th Street at Broadway
5th Street at Broadway
6th Street at Arizona
angel@smdp.com
