SANTA MONICA—On Monday, September 17, the city of Santa Monica collaborated with Breeze Bike Share, the city’s existing shared mobility system, as well as the vendors Bird, JUMP, Lime, and Lyft to launch Santa Monica’s new Shared Mobility Pilot Program.
The Shared Mobility Pilot Program is a 16-month pilot program that intends to expand on Santa Monica’s goal of being a sustainable, multi-modal city. The program helps the city of Santa Monica provide sustainable mobility options, while maintaining public safety for city streets and sidewalks.
The new pilot program opens Santa Monica’s streets to four selected operators, Bird, JUMP, Lime, and Lyft. Operators were required to address the issue of poor parking of shared bikes and scooters, as well as promote the safe usage of the bikes and scooters. Each vendor is allotted 750 devices each, adding up to 1,000 e-bikes and 2,000 e-scooters in the city.
JUMP, which was purchased by Uber in April 2018, and Lyft will each have 250 e-scooters and 500 e-bikes. Bird and Lime will each have 750 e-scooters.
The addition of devices to Santa Monica will compliment the city’s existing Breeze bikes that are operated by CycleHop. In the Final Administrative Decision for the Shared Mobility Pilot Program operators, the city of Santa Monica was identified as a promising market for shared mobility options due to the “diversity of people and activities, the high quality street network and the culture of active and outdoor living,” said David Martin, Director of Planning and Community Development for Santa Monica.
During the 16-month pilot period, the city will work to implement new pick-up and drop-off zones, new signage, and enhanced green lanes for bikes and scooters to move about safely. Data will be shared between operators and the city to ensure that devices are being equally distributed throughout the city. Santa Monica officials are welcoming the feedback from residents to make sure that no safety concerns are left unrecognized as they move forward with the program.
