RESPONSE TO COUNCIL QUESTION
RE: JULY 15, 2025 AGENDA
Item 5 25-1260: Study Session and Update on the City’s Shared Mobility Program
Question 1: Over time how many different companies participated?
Response: Two operators in 2022/23 (Bird and Veo), two operators in 2023/24 (Bird and Lime) and one operator in 2024/25 (Bird also known as Spin).
Question 2: Do we know why each of them left and how long did they stay?
Response: Based on discussions with the operators, staff understands the issues to be related to the following:
• Veo operated in Santa Clara in 2022/23 for approximately 6 months. Veo operates in the Southbay as one market with San Jose/Santa Clara and pulled out of San Jose due to high vandalism to their devices in San Jose and as a result if also pulled out of Santa Clara. • Lime operated in Santa Clara in 2023/24 for approximately 10 months. Lime also operates in the Southbay as one market with San Jose/Santa Clara. They pulled out of San Jose as they were not profitable there and as result did not reapply in Santa Clara.
Question 3: If they were losing money, do we know how much?
Response: No company finances were shared with the City.
Question 4: Did the City impose any fines?
Response: No fines were issued to operators.
Question 5: They were supposed to provide heat maps but the heat maps I saw were not granular enough? Can I get a list of the 10 most popular routes and parking locations?
Response: The City was provide restricted access to operator dashboards with simple heat maps. Staff created static quarterly heat maps and posted that information to the City’s project website. The heat maps provide an overview of operator data but don’t provide direct information about popular routes or parking locations however, staff reviewed the heat maps and estimate that popular pick up and drop off location are along Tasman Drive near light rail, Santa Clara University, Mission College, the El Camino Real area, Stevens Creek Boulevard, and Caltrain stations.
2 Question 6: In total how much VMT reduction was achieved by each operator?
Response: Using a Caltrans VMT calculation methodology, staff estimates VMT reductions by operator as shown in the chart below.
Annual VMT Reduction Estimates per Operator
Fiscal Year Operators VMT Reduction Estimate
FY 22/23 Bird 22,545
Veo Not Available
FY 23/24 Bird 1,779 Lime 13,585
FY 24/25 Bird/Spin 967
Question 7: Where any official bike parking locations established with signage?
Response: No Shared Mobility Parking locations were requested by the operators.
Question 8: Did they create the required dashboards?
Operator agrees to provide and maintain a public dashboard portal providing comprehensive anonymized data about the origins, destinations, distances, vehicle miles traveled (VMT}, and times of all trip activity related to Shared Mobility Devices deployed in the City, as well as aggregate data and heat maps categorized by vehicle
Response: No public dashboards were created as all of the operators had security and financial concerns about providing this level of information directly to the public.
Question 9: Did the operators implement geofencing? Can I see their required geofencing implementation plans?
Each Operator will be required to deploy "Geofencing" or other technology capable of preventing the use of Shared Mobility Devices or to limit the maximum speed of Shared Mobility Devices in designated areas of the City as specified by the City Manager. The City reserves the right to require that modifications to required geofencing areas be made during the duration of the Operator's permit. Operator shall provide geofencing implementation plan and timeline within three business days of City Manager request.
3 Response: Yes, operators implemented geofencing near Levi’s Stadium during major event days as shown on the map.
Question 10: Did the operators provide the required API and did City Staff use the API?
Operator agrees to provide the City with access to an Application Programming Interface (API) offering data about its fleet and all trip activity within the City, meeting the current requirements of the Mobility Data Specification (MOS) format developed by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation. This specification is detailed at:
https://github.com/CityOflosAngeles/mobility-data-specification
Response: Operators provided API data but it could not be accessed by staff due to constraints (i.e. additional IT/software resources) and staffing. The Shared Mobility program was absorbed by the department without any additional resources, and the traffic division still has a position frozen by Council that is unable to be filled.
Question 11: How is Bay Wheels funded in San Jose (is it subsidized)? https://www.lyft.com/bikes/bay-wheels
Response: Based on this question, we contacted San Jose and they indicated that they do not currently contribute to the operating fund for this program in San Jose but have provided funding for capital investments in years past. Per San Jose, most if not all of the overall program funding is provided by MTC and other grants.