It has been eight months since the City of Alexandria began a pilot program allowing dockless mobility companies to deploy their fleets in the Virginia city, and now Alexandria wants to know more about what the public thinks.
Alexandria is soliciting public feedback now through Sept. 6 with an online survey, and that feedback will help determine the future of scooters and e-bikes.
City staff will prepare an evaluation report and a set of recommendations for consideration by the Alexandria City Council this fall, incorporating results on its online public survey.
This year’s pilot program was designed to evaluate the safety and popularity of dockless mobility devices and the performance of the companies that operate them. The city continues to monitor how and where they are used, how responsive the companies have been and the safety of the scooters and bikes.
Already some restrictions have been added to where the scooters and bikes can operate.
New areas in Alexandria have been Geofenced to prohibit scooters and bikes from starting or ending trips in areas that include Market Square, the City Marina, Waterfront Park and areas around Metro stations that are currently closed for construction.
Based on an update on the pilot released in July, there were 18,050 users across all active app-based scooters and e-bikes. As of July, 101,515 trips started or ended in Alexandria.
The average trip was 10 to 15 minutes. The average distance traveled was 0.5 miles to 1.0 miles.
There have been seven rider injuries reported, 97 parking issues reported and 324 “other” complaints reported to operators, six citations for riding on the sidewalk and reckless driving and 138 riders stopped and warned or educated on behavior.
So far, top concerns expressed by the public include improperly parked devices, safety for pedestrians, Old Town’s loss of character and visual clutter.
Alexandria is working with mobility vendors for education events, the first of which was held Aug. 11. They are free to the public. The next outreach events are Aug. 24 from 10 a.m. to noon at Southern Towers Farmers Market and Sept. 5 from 6 to 8 p.m. at First Thursdays in Del Ray.
The online feedback form for comments on e-scooters and electric-assist bikes in Alexandria will be online through Sept. 6.
