Moratorium on the Implementation of Dockless bikes

Yesterday the Metropolitan Transportation Licensing Commission considered a request from NDOT Director Diane Alarcon to put a moratorium on the implementation of dockless bikes.   MTLC deferred the request for one month. The Cooper administration has a contract for a minimum of 250 dockless e-bikes and the companies could implement up to 375.  Right now the number is zero because NDOT postponed them anyway probably because of that damn parks “study”.  BCycle has about 175 docked e-bikes and hopefully will have more soon. NDOT is now in charge of the BCycle contract.

I made the motion for the deferral and requested a meeting with Ms. Alaracon.  The motion passed unanimously. The commission also wants her to come and explain the traffic study she is using as a reason to block bike share.

If she had appeared I was going to propose some kind of compromise that might have included fewer e-bikes outside of downtown. Maybe in some specific area like Mid-Town or East Nashville or wherever. Obviously you couldn’t do something like that without the approval of the district councilmember.

I  assume I’ll get the meeting with her. I hope WBN will also be invited.  I know she meets with the lobbyist for the scooter companies and that’s ok.  I want her to begin thinking I need to meet with advocates before I do something. We don’t have money or power so we need to be loud. Ask your council member to communicate to Alarcon we want bike share now.

If you have ideas about how to implement a compromise propsal let us know. Something is better than nothing and right now I hope for something.

Thanks to Matt Haskell and Nicole Williams for coming to speak yesterday. Thanks to all of you who communicated with the commission. Thanks even to David Kleinfelter who wrote a great email even if he accused me of being a socialist from Inglewood.

Carey

Bike Riding Socialist from Inglewood