The last scooter company willing to comply with San Diego’s strict rules ceased operations in the city last weekend, just as officials prepared to propose softening some key regulations including on sidewalk speed-throttling. The departure of Bird leaves the city with no scooter operators, just over a year after it adopted rules that limit scooter speeds on sidewalks to 3 mph and prohibit large and disorderly clusters of scooters.
The key element of the city's proposal would be shifting away from its current requirement that scooters have technology that detects sidewalks and immediately slows the scooter to 3 mph on them. Instead, riders would get audio alerts when they ride onto a sidewalk. Janet Rogers, leader of Safe Walkways, was critical of that proposal, contending it is exactly what the scooter companies asked for.