The city launched its 12-month e-scooter pilot program over Memorial Day weekend, allowing private and shared electric scooters to operate on designated portions of the Shoreline Pedestrian Bike Path.
The pilot will explore how e-scooters can safely and responsibly co-exist with other users along the bike path, officials said, while supporting the city’s efforts to expand sustainable and accessible transportation options.
The beach bike path – a 3.1-mile paved route that offers walkers, runners and bicyclists a path from Alamitos Bay to Shoreline Village – had been off limits to e-scooters, including those from the Lime and Bird companies. The pilot program, though, amended the municipal code to reintroduce e-scooter access along the path between Alamitos Avenue and 54th Place.
With growing tourism and recent enhancements along the shoreline, including the opening of the Junipero Beach Sports Court and new premium food concessions at Guaucho Beach and Saltwater Deck, the City Council approved the pilot program earlier this year. The council said doing so would be a way to increase public safety and connect Long Beach’s east side and downtown areas.
E-scooters will be limited to bike lanes only and will not be permitted on pedestrian walkways. To reinforce this separation, the city will install new signage at key zones and intermittently along the path to direct users to appropriate areas, according to a city press release.
The e-scooters will be governed by the California Vehicle Code, which limits their speed to 15 mph. In areas with high pedestrian activity, designated slow zones will be enforced via geofencing, reducing speeds to 5 mph. Geofencing is digital technology that uses GPS to remotely track and control vehicle movements and collect data, and internal mapping systems within the scooters will govern the motors to prevent speeding through pedestrian areas, according to city staff.
E-scooter companies will also be required to rebalance deployment and parking locations using car-free methods and must provide daily monitoring and operational oversight, according to the press release. New e-scooter corral locations for permitted vendors will also be established.
Lime, one of the city’s electric vehicle providers, launched its e-scooters for riders to use along the beach bike path on Saturday, May 24, and hosted a small event to commemorate the start of the pilot program. More than 450,000 riders in Long Beach have taken more than 1.7 million trips on e-scooters since the city launched its micromobility program in 2018, according to a Lime press release.
The company said it will prioritize responsible parking, tidiness and system reliability to ensure a positive experience for both riders and non-riders throughout the pilot.
“We’re proud to partner with the city of Long Beach as it opens the Beach Path to e-scooters, giving riders a safer and more scenic way to reach the coast,” Charlie Mastoloni, senior manager of government relations at Lime, said in a statement. “We believe this initiative can help foster a more vibrant and connected community, and we’re committed to providing a service that is clean, reliable and accessible to everyone.
Our shared e-scooters offer a safe, sustainable, and affordable way to get around,” Mastoloni added, “and we’re grateful for the role we get to play in helping to build a greener Long Beach.”
Privately owned scooters, meanwhile, must also comply with all state speed regulations but are not subject to the parking requirements in place for permitted e-scooter vendors.
The city will evaluate the pilot by monitoring a range of performance metrics, including the number of trips that begin and end on the beach path, e-scooter parking behavior and violations, ride duration and purpose, and general community feedback, according to the city’s press release.
The pilot will also assess compliance with speed limits, right-of-way rules and helmet use across all modes of transportation. The city’s Micromobility Team will release a six-month report summarizing key findings and recommending whether to move forward with the program permanently.
Led by the Public Works Department, the pilot program will be supported by an “education-first” enforcement approach in collaboration with the Fire and Police departments, focusing on outreach and awareness during the early stages of implementation. Community members are encouraged to report e-micromobility device violations on the Go Long Beach app.
This is not the first time the city has allowed e-scooters on the bike path. In July 2018, the city launched its first e-scooter pilot program, but they were then banned due to widespread issues with improper parking and devices being abandoned in unauthorized areas.
Since then, advancements in technology and operational practices have helped cities in the region, such as Los Angeles with its Venice Beach pilot, successfully manage shared e-micromobility in busy recreational zones, officials said.
The Long Beach initiative, meanwhile, supports the goals outlined in Long Beach’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, officials added, by helping reduce vehicle traffic near the coast and increasing access to beach amenities through low-emission, shared transportation options.
The proposal was brought back to the City Council in April 2024 by Councilmember Cindy Allen and co-sponsored by Councilmember Megan Kerr and Vice Mayor Roberto Uranga. The council discussion was held in April and June of last year, and again at three meetings this April before being approved 6-1, with Councilmember Kristina Duggan being the lone vote opposing the pilot program.
Duggan said that many of the community members in District 3, which she represents on the east side of Long Beach, don’t agree with allowing e-scooters on the path. One of the concerns is not having enough community input before the city goes ahead with the pilot program.
But Public Works Director Eric Lopez said there will be community outreach along the bike path once the program is underway.
For ongoing updates and more information, visit www.lbcity.info/micromobility.
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