[NFBWATLK] : Blocked by bikes: People with disabilities frustrated by bike share hazards, KOMO, May 1 2019

[Nightingale, Noel]

https://komonews.com/news/local/blocked-by-bikes-people-with-disabilities-frustrated-by-bike-share-hazards

Blocked by bikes: People with disabilities frustrated by bike share hazards
KOMO
May 1 2019
by Gabe Cohen

SEATTLE - People across Seattle are finding themselves blocked by bikes.

Lime and JUMP bikes line Seattle streets, and some riders are improperly parking them and blocking public spaces. That's the beauty and curse of those bicycles; you can leave them almost anywhere.

Marci Carpenter is blind. She confidently navigates downtown streets using her long white cane. But now she finds herself constantly running into those bicycles.

"It's very frustrating to have something carelessly left in the wrong place," Carpenter told KOMO. "I've hit myself on bikes, and I've had bikes, the way I encounter them, fall on me."

She says it's been a problem since bike share companies began operating in Seattle.

John Small has faced the same issue. He uses a power chair after his leg was amputated four years ago.

"It's a hardship, a big hardship," Small said. "Sometimes it's heartbreaking when you're in a hurry and need to catch the bus. Forget it if you got a stack of these in the way."

Carpenter brought her concerns to the City Council last year. She says the city needs stricter enforcement.

"We want to have a dialogue with them about parking enforcement," she said. "I just know there needs to be more happening."

SDOT says the city is listening.

The city plans to build 1,500 parking spots for bicycles this year, including racks and painted spaces. And they're about to launch an awareness campaign with a disability rights group.

They also plan to hold the bike share companies accountable. They're doing an audit with random parking compliance checks around the city.

They expect 97 percent of each company's bicycles to be parked correctly by the end of the year. Their standard, they say, is even stricter than A.D.A. regulation.

If any company fails to meet that requirement, SDOT says they could reduce the number of bicycles they're permitted to have on the street or terminate their permit altogether.

The city's most recent audit numbers showed 1.5 percent of bike share bicycles in Seattle posed an A.D.A. violation but 14.5 percent posed a blocking hazard under their stricter standard.

Lime and JUMP both say they can deal out fines, but plan to reach 97 percent compliance by educating riders and using their operations team.

"Addressing the parking issue is an exercise in effective operations, and our team is trained to deploy and rebalance bikes on sidewalks that are large enough to accommodate bikes, not block ramps, and stay clear of entrances to buildings and landscaped area," Lime said in a statement.

Lime says they are also offering incentives like ride credits to those who park correctly.

JUMP says they'll meet the goal through "rider education on parking best practices; and our field teams moving improperly-parked bikes that we find and that are reported to us."

In 2018, SDOT says the city received a total of $1 million from Lime, JUMP and Lyft for permits to operate free-floating bike shares, though Lyft has not started operating.

This is how SDOT says they're spending that money: $400,000 for 1,500 parking spots; $50,000 for compliance audits and enforcement; $50,000 for education and outreach; $50,000 for a partnership with Outdoors for All to provide free adaptive cycle rentals for people with disabilities.

Right now there are roughly 5,000-7,000 operational bike shares in Seattle, according to SDOT.