Bowling Green Council’s legislation governing electric scooters won’t be starting its motor for a little while.

On Monday, council voted to table the legislation until next month due to a series of proposed amendments.

Since then, a committee meeting has been called to further discuss scooters.

The community improvement committee will hold a meeting on Monday at 4 p.m. in the council chamber located in the City Administrative Services Building, 304 N. Church St.

On Monday, Shakir Blackett, co-founder of Meridian Rentals LLC, said that the company would like to offer scooter rentals in Bowling Green.

“The main reason for these vehicles is to provide an affordable alternative for transportation,” he said after council discussion about legislation to allow the scooters in town. “With the rising cost of gas prices, there isn’t really another main way of transportation here in Bowling Green.

The scooters would be rented through a mobile app, Blackett said.

“You just go up to one of the scooters and you can scan it and unlock it. You can also, on the map that’s generated on the mobile app, see where the scooters are located throughout the city,” he said. “Our model is $1 to unlock and 30 cents a minute.”

Blackett, who is a 2021 Bowling Green State University graduate, said the company is waiting for council to pass legislation allowing the scooters. They are hoping to get permission from BGSU to also operate on campus.

“People want a renewable form of transportation,” Blackett said.

His business partner is Seth Crosby, chief finance officer, who is also a 2021 BGSU graduate.

At a meeting Monday, a council committee discussed the size of the scooter fleet that would be allowed in Bowling Green, speeds and where they would be allowed to operate.

The community improvement committee held a meeting prior to council to hear comments on the ordinance, which was scheduled to receive its third reading and a vote by council later in the evening.

Resident Sharon Stratman asked the committee several questions regarding the legislation, including where the electric scooters, or “e-scooters,” could operate and at what speeds.

Committee members Jeff Dennis and Bill Herald said that, under the ordinance, the scooters would be able to operate similarly to a bicycle on shared bicycle and pedestrian ways, streets, bike lanes and bike paths.

They cannot run on sidewalks except where permitted by Bowling Green State University. Their maximum speed would be 20 miles per hour, and they could not be operated on streets with a speed limit above 35 miles an hour.

As the committee moved to discuss the ordinance, Dennis said he had a series of amendments, falling into three broad categories.

The first was to amend the definition of a “micromobility device” in the legislation to include not only e-scooters, but also bicycles and e-bikes distributed by a company to be rented per trip.

Second, Dennis proposed an amendment to add a “Data, Statistics and Reporting” section to the legislation. Dennis said that this was taken from legislation of the city of Athens, Ohio, and would require the micromobility companies to provide certain statistical information to the city on a regular basis. This would include a breakdown of users by gender and age; the number of vehicles in circulation; daily, weekly, and monthly active users; total miles; number and duration of rides per user, per day; collisions and other similar data.

“I think the purpose would be to provide a lot of great information to the city on where some of our transportation needs are,” Dennis said, “whether we need to increase the number of what I would call micromobility devices that are permitted,” and other issues.

“I think it would be great to have this information. And other cities are collecting it, so it seems like something we would want as well.”

Third, Dennis proposed adding a section of the ordinance on fleet size requirements, also suggested by the city of Athens’ legislation. For instance, e-scooters would have a minimum required fleet size of 50, and a maximum of 100.

“I think we need to be very careful of the number of these we are permitting on the street,” Dennis said, saying there is an incentive for companies to flood the market with vehicles so their particular brand can be found more easily. He said that the minimums and maximums could be adjusted as needed based on gathered statistics.

Dennis also noted there are several micromobility operators interested in Bowling Green, and one of them is already operating.

After further discussion, the committee voted unanimously to recommend to council that the first suggested amendment, concerning the definition of a “micromobility device,” be passed on to the city attorney so that he could appropriately work it into the legislation.

Discussing the second amendment, regarding data collection, Herald said he felt the concept of gathering such information was good, but didn’t want it to become burdensome to the companies.

“The concept of adding some requirements for reporting, I’m fine with that,” he said. “I’m just concerned there would be just too much here.”

Councilman Joel Odorisi, who is the chair of the committee, said he had concerns about privacy in collecting some of the data.

Dennis noted that micromobility customers already must download an app to use the companies’ services, so “what we’re doing is asking for anonymous statistics from the company,” taken from data those companies have already gathered.

“I certainly see the usefulness in this,” Odorisio said. “I would prefer to request information that we intend to use, rather than an excess of information, personally.”

As the discussion continued, it was noted that additional discussion on some of the amendments would be preferred. The meeting was also beginning to bump up against the 7 p.m. start time for the regular council meeting.

“I suggest you guys schedule another meeting,” said Council President Mark Hollenbaugh.

When the matter came up for its third reading and vote during the following council meeting, Odorisio moved to table until Aug. 15, and council approved it. Another committee meeting is expected to be scheduled before that date.

The prospect of e-scooters in the city was discussed publicly earlier this summer.

Blackett made a proposal for American Rescue Plan Act funding to council during a May 15 committee-of-the-whole meeting, seeking $117,638 to fund a micromobility project involving e-scooters. He said that his company’s goal is to provide affordable transportation and access to a micromobility network for the community and Bowling Green State University students.

Council introduced its own legislation concerning e-scooters during the June 21 meeting, which would create Chapter 123 of the city’s codified ordinances.

According to the legislative package document prepared for council, “the path and background for this legislation is similar to what occurred earlier this year with the quadricycle legislation. In this case, the State of Ohio passed legislation allowing for the use of electric scooters and authorizing local jurisdictions to pass additional regulations as they see fit – otherwise the state law governs.”

The document stated that city staff looked at current BGSU policies and laws on the books in other cities in the state about the vehicles.

The ordinance adds the new Chapter 123 “to establish rules and regulations governing the operation of shared electric scooters and their providers … and to ensure that such mobility sharing systems are consistent with the safety and well-being of the citizens of Bowling Green.”

The document states that the regulations in the new chapter would require “providers to enter into a use agreement, to display easily visible contact information on each vehicle, to take reasonable steps to ensure that riders understand (Americans with Disabilities Act) requirements, and to provide indemnification and insurance requirements. The legislation describes the equipment that must be provided, including a forward pointed lamp and a back reflector,” and, among other provisions, also lists operating parameters.

(Sentinel-Tribune multi-media journalist J.D. Pooley contributed to this story.)