Beachcombing

Jay Beeler

Last week we heard from the city employee at the center of the controversies over rental scooters and “traffic calming,” which reduces vehicle traffic lanes while expanding bike lanes throughout the city. The Rotary Club of Long Beach luncheon speaker on the Queen Mary, Michelle Mowery, is a transportation planner who manages the city’s mobility group within the Public Works Department.

A resident of Long Beach with over 25 years work experience, Mowery previously was a transportation planner for the City of Los Angeles. As such she works on programs for the future, like getting residents to become fit and active using alternatives to the automobile. These programs can create savings in healthcare costs, improve air quality, offer more economic ways to travel and get people to drive slower, thus saving lives.

You can learn more about Mowery’s efforts on the city’s website by searching for “GoActiveLB.”

The concept of putting bike lanes next to the sidewalks and separating them from traffic using vehicle parking spaces and those green bollards is popular in Europe. But on Broadway in Long Beach the reconfiguration has caused an uproar. Citizens are reporting an uptick in traffic accidents and higher traffic volumes on adjacent, parallel streets as commuters avoid Broadway.

Mowery says the traffic calming (aka “road diet”) efforts – including those roundabouts on busy streets – are effective in slowing down vehicles. As to the complaints about bollards restricting fire and police access, she says they can be driven over and “will pop back up.”

Other areas of the city with traffic calming in place include Studebaker Road, Bellflower Boulevard, Artesia Boulevard and Orange Avenue. A long stretch of 15th Street is currently under construction with future planning for Loma Avenue, Obispo Avenue and Anaheim Road in Park Estates. There’s a project map at GoActiveLB.

Mowery’s team was handed the scooter share pilot program last June and it was started in August. Right now, they have four vendors and 1,000 units throughout the city. With city council approval the program will soon expand to 4,000 units, then as many as 6,000 scooters.

Research has shown that the average trip takes 31 minutes over 1.6 miles. In the first 7-8 months of the program there were 300,000 trips with 32 percent for recreation, 31 percent for transportation, 21 percent for commuting and 10 percent used for connecting to other modes of transportation.

The bad news is that scooters replaced walking trips, which is not good for promoting good health. Bike rentals have not been affected by the newer scooter rentals.

In Long Beach, scooter riders must have a driver’s license, be a minimum of 18 years old, can’t park on right of way or block any ADA access, use only bike lanes and maintain a speed of under 25 miles per hour. Helmets are no longer required.

When asked about revenues to the city, Mowery stated “The city is making zero right now. As we move forward there will be a $25,000 annual permit fee and $100 per device fee to cover about half of the city’s costs. Vendors must provide the liability insurance to protect the city up to $5 million. Riders must sign a waiver that gives up all their rights for using them.”

“I don’t want to see them running over someone’s dog or grandma and don’t want them on the sidewalks,” she said. Efforts are underway to have scooter injuries coded by hospital emergency departments for better tracking of accidents.

“Scooters aren’t going away,” Mowery said. “Transportation is really dynamic and changing all the time, regardless of the mode.”

Our online poll at www.beachcomber.news reports that 83% responded “no” to the question: “Do you like the new Broadway “road diet” configuration?”

 publisher@beachcomber.news

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