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Tag Archive for: bikeshare
AB 371 Goes Dormant and Bike Share Lives — for Now
Thanks to CalBike and the “all-powerful bicycle lobby,” AB 371, the Kill Bike Share Bill, has halted its journey through the California legislature. The bill included a burdensome and unfair insurance requirement for bike and scooter sharing systems that would have ended shared micromobility in California. The bad news is that we might have to fight this fight all over again next year.
Kill Bike Share Bill could return in 2022
AB 371 isn’t technically dead — it is a two-year bill, which gives it another chance to pass the legislature in the 2022 legislative session.
A lot could happen between now and 2022. The bill’s author could decide not to bring it back, or he could revise it to remove the insurance requirement. CalBike will continue to work hard for one of those outcomes.
However, unprecedented bike share operator indemnity seems to be a zombie idea that just won’t die. CalBike and our allies succeeded in excising a similar insurance requirement from a bill in 2020, and yet it came back again in AB 371.
Contradictory California policies
California desperately needs more carbon-free transportation options to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change. To further that goal, the state’s recently-announced Clean Mobility Opportunity (CMO) grants included several bike sharing programs.
Ironically, the insurance requirements in AB 371 are at odds with the state’s policies because they would put an end to all bike share in California. The insurance requirement, as currently written, would make system operators liable not only for accidents related to equipment failure but for those caused by bike share users. Such an insurance policy doesn’t currently exist and, if it did, it would be so expensive that it would make bike and scooter sharing systems impossible to operate. This would not only put venture capital-backed systems like Lime and Lyft out of business; it would also end the LA Metro municipal bike share and close down the very projects California’s CMO has funded.
Bike sharing systems have a tremendous safety record. A 2016 study found that bike share riders are less likely to get into accidents than people on their own bikes. If legislators are worried about traffic injuries not covered by insurance, shared micromobility is not the target with the most significant impact.
About 16.6% of California motorists are uninsured — the tenth highest rate in the nation. That’s almost 2.5 million uninsured, 3000-pound, gas-powered vehicles on our streets. There’s a problem worth solving.
AB 371 Could Deal Fatal Blow to Bike/Scooter Sharing
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
UPDATED: July 7, 2021
AB 371 Could Deal Fatal Blow to Bike/Scooter Sharing
Sacramento – The California Bicycle Coalition (CalBike) opposes AB 371 by Assembly Member Jones-Sawyer that would impose an onerous insurance burden on shared-mobility providers and likely put them out of business across the state. A similar provision was defeated in the 2020 legislature.
The bill is now headed to the Senate Committees on Judiciary and Insurance.
Dave Snyder, executive director, CalBike:
“Shared bikes and scooters are a critical complement to public transit. We’ve only just begun to see the benefit that we’ll enjoy once we expand these systems and integrate them with transit. Unfortunately, we may never see that future if AB 371 passes. It will place unprecedented insurance requirements on bike- and scooter-share systems that would end this vital last-mile transportation option in California.
Private and Public Micromobility Systems Threatened
The insurance requirement will apply to nonprofit services, like bicycle libraries that lend out bikes on a short-term basis to low-income neighborhood residents, as well as public transit agencies like LA Metro, and private providers like Spin or Bird. It would put them all out of the shared micromobility business and kill this promising low-impact, low-cost transportation mode. This comes just when we need it the most and when bikeshare systems are reporting record ridership.
Update: View our OpEd produced in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition and TransForm.
CalBike Members Get 30% Off Micromobility America 2020
Micromobility America returns to Richmond, CA, for the largest-ever gathering of people specifically focused on new modes of urban mobility.
Important note: The 2020 Micromobility America conference has been rescheduled from April 22-23 to July 16-17, due to coronavirus concerns.
Speakers include Lime president Joe Kraus, Curbed editor Alissa Walker, Strava data leader Cathy Tanimura, and many more. View the full agenda here.
CalBike is a media partner and, for a limited time, our followers can take an extra 30% off tickets by registering using this link. Come join us for two days of expos, meet-ups, new vehicle demos, presentations, and panels. The 30% offer ends May 1.
