Austin Transportation posts updated director's rules for shared micromobility after device reductions; public comment open

Austin Transportation and Public Works staff briefed the Downtown Commission on April 21, 2025, about recent changes to the city’s shared micromobility program, outreach results and a posted update to the department’s director’s rules that will be open for public comment.

Joseph Vohadri (Parking Enterprise Manager) and Michael Kimbro (Program Manager, Shared Mobility Services) said the city imposed a cap on the number of vendors and devices after two vendors left the market in 2023. The cap and device reductions — a roughly 29% citywide cut in devices and a 44% reduction inside the Downtown Austin Project Coordination Zone — have produced a modest decline in overall trips and operational benefits for enforcement and vendors, the presenters said.

Kimbro presented high‑level metrics comparing two 12‑month periods (April 1–March 31 year‑over‑year): total trips citywide fell from about 2,915,000 to about 2,850,000 (a 3% decrease). Downtown trips declined from roughly 2,000,000 to about 1,800,000 (a 9% decrease) despite the much larger decline in downtown devices. Trips per vehicle per day rose: citywide from 1.21 to 1.36 trips per vehicle; downtown from about 1.1 to roughly 1.8 trips per vehicle. Customer service requests from enforcement and citizens also fell markedly after the program changes, staff said.

Staff summarized outreach and survey work. An open house March 24 drew both operators and community input. A follow‑up survey collected responses from just under 700 participants and more than 1,300 comments. Key survey findings reported by staff: 50% of respondents said they do not ride shared devices because of safety concerns; 51% say they use devices primarily to access entertainment; 30% use the devices to commute to work or school; 20% reported having experienced a crash on a shared device (respondents were not independently verified); 61% were concerned about blocked sidewalks; and 54% said it was not clear where to park scooters safely.

To address clutter and parking, staff said the city is auditing existing micromobility parking boxes and plans to expand the number of designated parking areas. Presenters described vendor technology that can “force‑park” scooters in designated boxes during events and other locations; staff said the technology has been used at select event sites (for example, ACL) but not yet citywide. Photo‑verification of end‑of‑trip parking is live for Lime and in testing for Bird; the system requires a rider to take a photo before ending a trip and vendors are piloting third‑party, near‑real‑time image review to prevent parking in ADA ramps and other restricted locations.

Kimbro described the proposed director’s rules posted with the city clerk. Key topics in the draft rules include: definitions and vehicle requirements, equity programs and reporting, permit areas and unit deployment limits, standardized collision and safety reporting, operations and customer service requirements, data reporting and sharing, insurance/performance bond and fee clarifications, an evaluation scorecard for vendor performance, and violations and penalties. The city posted the rules for public comment; staff said the public comment period will close in about a month, that the city will publish a response-to-comments summary by July 10, and that adoption is planned for July 17 if the schedule holds.

On enforcement and quick response: staff advised that 3‑1‑1 reports can be used to create service requests tied to a vendor (for example, identifying Lime in the 3‑1‑1 app will email the vendor) and that enforcement service‑level agreements require vendors to remedy many types of improperly parked devices within set time frames (staff cited a typical two‑hour window when routed through vendor processes). Staff also said new internal case‑tracking (NAC) has improved the city’s ability to differentiate enforcement‑created service requests from citizen reports and to track vendor responsiveness.

Kimbro and Vohadri said the city is also preparing a curbside management study to define curb typologies and to guide future allocation of curb space to deliveries, parking boxes, micro‑mobility corrals and other uses; the study is expected to start within a month and run roughly 10–11 months. Staff urged stakeholders to submit location requests for new micromobility parking boxes by email to sharedmobility@austintexas.gov.

Several commissioners and downtown stakeholders raised concerns in Q&A about sidewalk clutter, ADA access, geofencing accuracy and the pace of deployment for parking boxes and vendor technology; staff responded that GPS accuracy limits some geofencing/speed controls on sidewalks but that forced‑parking and photo verification are being expanded. Staff said they will continue outreach and return to commissions as rules and infrastructure plans mature.