Scooter Share Program

The City of St. Petersburg is Florida’s fifth-largest city with approximately 250,000 residents and 700,000 visitors each year.  With moderately temperate weather year-round, a great city-grid roadway network, relatively flat terrain, and great urban destinations, St. Petersburg is set up to be a premier walking and bicycling city and an ideal candidate for a robust Scooter Share Program.  The City has been ranked 4th for economic growth for Mid-sized Cities[1]  and 2nd as a Traveler’s Choice: Best of the Best Destination[2] in part because of our thriving Downtown and the many business districts extending from Downtown including the EDGE, Grand Central, Deuces Live on 22nd Street South, and 4th Street.  St. Petersburg has a burgeoning arts and cultural scene with popular destinations such as the Dali Museum, the James Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, and the forthcoming Museum of American Arts and Crafts Movement.  Currently, the City of St. Petersburg has one scooter operator providing seated and standing scooters, of up to 885 vehicles, with roughly 300,000 annual trips during operational hours that span 5am to midnight daily. The City has worked diligently to significantly increase its bicycle infrastructure by constructing over 120 miles of bicycle facilities citywide through the implementation of the City Trails Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan that was adopted in 2003 as well as the Complete Streets Implementation Plan, adopted in May of 2019.  In doing so, the City has made considerable progress in providing a network that allows people to choose additional transportation modes, such as walking and bicycling, that are an alternative to single-occupant vehicles and naturally supports motorized scooter use.  The Pinellas Trail is the primary artery of St. Petersburg’s pedestrian and bicycle network and connects the residential areas with a separated multi-use facility by which to access Downtown St. Petersburg.  On-street bicycle infrastructure, in the forms of bicycle lanes and a tight-grid of low speed/low volume streets, connect with the trails for a seamless network of available bicycle routes that are available for use within a motorized Scooter Share Program.In addition to the environment within St. Petersburg that supports a motorized Scooter Share Program, the City has adopted a micromobility ordinance related to micromobility devices and micromobility service providers which provides a regulatory framework for the Program.  Notably, the City prohibits the use of motorized scooters on sidewalks and along certain trails, governs them to a maximum speed of 15mph, and requires that they are used within bike lanes, if available, and upon low-speed streets.  The City requires micromobility devices to be parked only at designated micromobility parking areas.  Further, the City requires micromobility providers maintain insurance coverage as described within the City’s micromobility ordinance. Under this Request for Proposals (RFP), the City of St. Petersburg seeks to continue scooter share service with approximately one (1) to three (3) operators.  Offerors are solicited to be provided a license to operate motorized scooter share equipment and provide scooter share operations and management services according to certain minimum program requirements.  Each Offeror shall set forth a cost proposal for City consideration with the potential fiscal impact to the City based on each proposal considered as one of the evaluation criteria. Previously, the City has agreed to an annual right-of-way use fee of roughly $250 per scooter billed monthly.  The City understands the volatility of the micromobility market and understands that proposals may propose lower fees that would be paid by the Operator to the City for use of its rights-of-way.  The City is open to agreeing upon a lower right-of-way use fee, which could be associated with a per-trip fee.  The proposed cost by the Offeror will be considered by the City as a part of the evaluation balanced with other Program requirements.[1] https://www.coworkingcafe.com/blog/top-cities-for-economic-growth/