The initiative is being launched with the goal of making micromobilty transportation options more readily available
By ALMA CULVERWELL — city@theaggie.org
The city of Davis recently launched a joint program along with local company Spin. The business, headquartered in San Francisco, was founded in 2017 and is a leading micromobility company specializing in e-bikes and scooters. Spin works to make larger cities easier for pedestrians to navigate. The company uses an app to activate their vehicles which can be found at their charging hubs and designated parking areas.
Brit Moller, Head of Public Policy for Spin, described what inspired the company to get involved at Davis.
“Davis is a leader in bicycling and setting up infrastructure for helping people getting around outside of cars,” Moller said. “When we look at Davis we see an incredible opportunity to put our service in a place that really has embraced bike culture, created the infrastructure to support it and, with the university sort of centering it, you have a lot of younger people that I think are very open to trying shared bikes and scooters,” Moller said.
Spin was selected by the city of Davis and UC Davis after a competitive selection and interview process that included a critical focus on adequate selection criteria. Once selected, Spin collaborated with the city of Davis Transportation Committee to ensure that they were providing a method of transportation that is easy to use and access.
In order to guarantee proper usage of their e-bikes and to protect people’s safety, Spin requires users to submit a picture of their locked-up device at the end of their trip. Users will incur an extra charge if they fail to lock them up correctly.
Spin also plans to keep watch on properly deploying and redistributing the devices to high-demand areas if needed. They plan to relocate the devices after 24 hours.
“Our first goal is to hear from residents and students from Davis to see if this service is meeting their needs,” Moller said. “One of the ways we can measure that is if they are actually riding our devices […] we are really excited in this first month to get a sense of the communities feedback […] we want to see ridership kick off in a city like Davis because I think there’s a lot of opportunities for people to use the e-bikes for shorter trips.”
Spin plans to increase the number of bikes deployed to the city of Davis as the school calendar year begins again after receiving community feedback.
Written by: Alma Culverwell — city@theaggie.org
