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Authorizing the Committee on Transportation & Public Utilities and the Committee on The Environment to conduct hearings regarding how dockless electric scooters could provide an affordable and environmentally friendly transportation option for all Philadelphians.
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WHEREAS, In 1681, William Penn surveyed his future City of Philadelphia to lay out a city with streets in a broad grid, to allow for large houses with sustainable yards and multimodal streets wide enough to accommodate both pedestrians and those traveling by horse or carriage; and
WHEREAS, In the last three centuries, our City has seen many forms of transportation come and go, while our City has grown to 1.6 million and our streets are now overloaded with cars, trucks, trolleys, buses, bikes and services including taxis, carsharing, and limousines;
WHEREAS, Philadelphia’s increasingly congested streets and their resulting carbon emissions are a threat to the air we breathe and the very future of our planet, as climate change causes rising sea levels, severe storms, and other extreme weather events, there is a present danger requiring significant human adjustments to avoid far worse damage; and
WHEREAS, The City is committed to promoting environmentally responsible transportation initiatives that reduce carbon emissions and to supporting alternative modes of transportation that help spur economic development by facilitating the transport of Philadelphians and our guests around our City as quickly and easily as possible; and
WHEREAS, Building upon the success of Indego, our outstanding bike-share program, and looking ahead to the next generation of micromobility technology, this City Council passed Bill No. 180429 in June 2018 to establish licensing and other requirements for the dockless rental of small vehicles such as low-speed electric standup scooters; and
WHEREAS, Dockless electric scooter sharing systems have been implemented successfully and safely in hundreds of cities in the United States and around the world, where they have been regulated with the same rules that apply to bicycles while reducing dependency on automobiles, particularly for short trips, thereby reducing motor vehicle-related fatalities, traffic congestion, vehicle emissions, and the demand for parking; and
WHEREAS, A dockless scooter sharing system will further promote the City’s transportation safety initiatives, including Vision Zero, by reducing the number of automobiles and increasing awareness for scooter riders, bicyclists, and pedestrians on the road, while also promoting Vision 6 of the City’s Greenworks sustainability plan, for “all Philadelphians to have access to safe, affordable, and low- carbon transportation”; and
WHEREAS, Cities have found that residents with low incomes stand to benefit the most from new low-cost transportation options, and that those like a scooter sharing system can enhance the existing public transportation system and be particularly effective in the “last mile” connecting commuters from public transit to their homes or place of work; and
WHEREAS, The City of Philadelphia, following the precedent of many other cities in the United States and in other countries, can seek to bring the new technology of shared dockless low-speed electric standup scooters to all of the citizens of Philadelphia as soon as possible for all the reasons herein cited, in our ongoing efforts to adapt our City’s transportations options for a changing market and planet; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That the Council Committee on Transportation & Public Utilities and the Committee on The Environment conduct hearings regarding how to diversify the transportation options for Philadelphians to prepare our city for the next century and how dockless electric scooters can be a key component of such a plan and provide a more affordable and environmentally friendly transportation option for all Philadelphians.
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