{"id":791882,"date":"2019-01-09T16:24:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-09T23:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/brecknridge-officials-see-path-for-e-bikes-but-not-scooters-in-towns-future\/"},"modified":"2019-01-09T16:24:00","modified_gmt":"2019-01-09T23:24:00","slug":"brecknridge-officials-see-path-for-e-bikes-but-not-scooters-in-towns-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/brecknridge-officials-see-path-for-e-bikes-but-not-scooters-in-towns-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Brecknridge officials see path for e-bikes (but not scooters) in town\u2019s future"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">They can see a bike-sharing program using town-owned property. And they think shared-mobility options could alleviate some traffic congestion in Breckenridge. But the town&#8217;s elected officials can&#8217;t fathom allowing e-scooters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">&#8220;My reasoning is I feel like scooters are far more likely to end up being parked and used on our sidewalks, and I think our sidewalks during peak times are just too crowded and they can&#8217;t handle it,&#8221; said Councilman Dick Carleton. &#8220;And it kind of scares me to have the scooters in the road.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">In a Tuesday discussion framing the town&#8217;s &#8220;philosophy&#8221; for shared-mobility options \u2014 any mode of transportation that&#8217;s shared from one person to another \u2014 Breckenridge Town Council came to a consensus on a number of line items.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Among them, officials were agreeable to using town-owned property as collection points for a bike-sharing program. A majority of council also favored capping the numbers one way or another and preventing e-scooters from roaming the town&#8217;s streets and sidewalks altogether.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Breckenridge is working on crafting new policy for shared-mobility options and doing it in pieces, said assistant town manager Shannon Haynes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Based on Tuesday&#8217;s conversation among council members, staff will return with a proposal, or proposals, incorporating their wishes into an overarching transportation plan. Other discussion topics gravitated to where e-bikes can be ridden, as well as their pricing and safety.<\/p>\n<div id=\"single-mid-script\" class=\"p402_hide\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories For You<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Much of the focus went to <a id=\"N0x25944f0N0x2795480:N0x25944f0N0x2572480\" href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/explore-summit\/new-summit-bike-share-launches-in-breckenridge\/\">Summit Bike Share<\/a>, which rolled out about 25 e-bikes in Breckenridge this summer through a partnership between local bike store owner Nick Truitt and the Boulder-based UrBike company.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">&#8220;I think this is a good deal for these e-bike people,&#8221; Councilman Jeffrey Bergeron said. &#8220;I think we can license them, require best business practices and keep their license short\u2026 so if they don&#8217;t comply \u2014 if (e-bikes) are left all over the place blocking egress \u2014 we&#8217;ll go to another company.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Seeing problems other cities have had with e-scooters, Breckenridge Town Council wasn&#8217;t opposed to permitting e-bikes even though its members were wholly committed to preserving Breckenridge&#8217;s sidewalks for foot traffic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">&#8220;We&#8217;re so set up for bikes, but our town isn&#8217;t set up for an influx of scooters,&#8221; Councilwoman Erin Gigliello said as she echoed her colleagues&#8217; statements against making e-scooters part of the plan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">E-bikes might have survived Tuesday&#8217;s discussion, but the August e-bike rollout didn&#8217;t come without its hiccups, like causing clutter, impeding pedestrian walkways and people riding ebikes where electric vehicles are prohibited, town staff said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">But staff also see e-bikes as having the potential to aid Breckenridge&#8217;s traffic control efforts, as they&#8217;ve noticed the bikes are getting used \u2014 sometimes at interesting hours of night.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Statistics from the company confirm this. Anecdotally, Haynes said she&#8217;s noticed there will be no bikes in her neighborhood at night only to find some parked by the bus stop at 7 the next morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">&#8220;That&#8217;s so true,&#8221; Councilwoman Elisabeth Lawrence said. &#8220;And haphazardly parked, like it was parked there by someone that was drunk.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">A former chief of police, Haynes emphasized that people shouldn&#8217;t ride any bike under the influence before conceding that the e-bikes are showing ridership after the town&#8217;s free busing system has stopped for the night, further suggesting e-bikes could be that &#8220;first and last mile&#8221; of travel in town.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">In terms of pricing, Summit Bike Share rents out the ebikes out at $4 an hour, and council members said they worry that might be too high of a price to encourage the frequency of use they&#8217;d like to see.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Council also talked about keeping e-bikes from leaving Breckenridge, especially on the paths and trails where they&#8217;re not allowed. Gigliello asked if geofencing \u2014 a mechanism where the bikes lock up after leaving a specific area \u2014 might be option. Beyond that, Councilwoman Wendy Wolfe was disturbed she&#8217;s seen so many riders without helmets. In response, Holman said the town might be able to build that into the new rules.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Reached via email, UrBike&#8217;s director of operations, Alec Brewster, said the company&#8217;s software can provide &#8220;some level&#8221; of geofencing that prevents riders from ending trips outside a designated boundary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">&#8220;This means that rider&#8217;s trip will still be active,&#8221; he said, explaining that the rider would keep getting charged until returning to that area. However, &#8220;a more preferable method&#8221; of containing ebikes would be designating parking spots and posting preferred locations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Still, upgrades for both the company&#8217;s e-scooter and e-bike fleets can cable-lock assets to posts and such. It&#8217;s &#8220;a premium product,&#8221; Brewster said, but it could help keep walkways clear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">As for pricing, Brewester said they are willing to work with the town, and the company has a variety of methodologies that are &#8220;highly customizable&#8221; for the franchise owner.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/brecknridge-officials-see-path-for-e-bikes-but-not-scooters-in-towns-future\/\" target=\"_blank\">via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They can see a bike-sharing program using town-owned property. And they think shared-mobility options could alleviate some traffic congestion in Breckenridge. But the town&#8217;s elected officials can&#8217;t fathom allowing e-scooters. &#8220;My reasoning is I feel like scooters are far more likely to end up being parked and used on our sidewalks, and I think our [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-791882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 22:13:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791882\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}