Priority Areas: First Mile/Last Mile
Practice Details: When the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) first established a permit program for Powered Scooter Share, they mandated that permittees must develop an adaptive scooter pilot program. During these pilot programs, the permittees put adaptive scooters on the street alongside their non-adaptive fleets and offered several options for reserving adaptive scooters. Permittees were also required to solicit feedback and evaluations from local disability organizations on their program. After incorporating lessons learned from the pilot programs, SFMTA required permittees to provide adaptive scooters as at least 5% of their on-street fleet.
SFMTA writes about their program:“All on-street adaptive devices are rentable from the permittee’s existing mobile app, meaning a rider can reserve and ride an adaptive scooter in the same way as a standard scooter. The adaptive scooters must feature at least two of the following expansions to increase access: 1) three wheels, 2) seat, or 3) basket. Rental costs for adaptive scooters must be equal to or less than the rental cost of a general fleet scooter.” SFMTA also incentivized permittees to continue testing their scooter and service design. Since then, SFMTA has also introduced a longer-term rental
Why It’s Promising: Adaptive powered mobility devices can increase accessibility and are especially useful for short trips and recreational activities. Incorporating feedback from local disability organizations, as well as adaptive scooter users, allowed SFMTA permittees to improve their programs to meet the needs of the community.
Replication: Organizations looking to implement a powered scooter permit program in their community can look to the lessons learned from the SFMTA program about how to require and incentivize adaptive devices so that all members of the community can participate in the powered scooter programs. Learn more about the details of each permittee pilot program.
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