Indy Approves Shared Mobility Rules
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Indianapolis Board of Business and Neighborhood Services has approved a number of regulations for shared mobility operators in the city, such as scooter operators and Pacers Bikeshare. The regulations include the number of operators that can be licensed in the city and caps on the total number of dockless devices each operator can have.
The board ruled the city can have no more than six shared mobility operators. Indianapolis currently has five, including scooter operators Bird, Lime, Spin and Lyft, as well as Pacers Bikeshare. Each shared mobility operator will only be allowed to have 1,000 dockless devices. That rule does not affect Pacers Bikeshare, which only operates its bicycles via dock stations.
The regulations also create what the city calls "high utilization and access zones" where each dockless shared mobility operator must place a certain percentage of its devices. The city says the zones were determined using data on areas where there is a greater reliance on non-automobile forms of transportation.
"The main goal of these regulations is to ensure no area of the city is over or under served by dockless shared mobility," said Brian Madison, director of the Department of Business and Neighborhood Services. "The city welcomes scooters but we want to make sure they are all being used and that all residents and visitors have access to them."
Plans for the regulations were first announced last month, when the BNS board gave Lyft approval to operate in the city.