Public Works Committee - Regular Meeting

Hey, Denver. It's time for this biweekly meeting of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of Denver City Council. Join us for the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee starting now.

Alrighty. Good afternoon, and welcome to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Today is Wednesday, 03/18/2026, and my name is Chantel m Lewis, and I chair this committee. And I'm honored to do so. I represent the constituents of District 8, and I'd like to take a moment of privilege and wish my son a very happy birthday tomorrow. It's the '20 the nineteenth, and he'll be 23 years old. And so happy birthday, Diego. With that, I will get started with the round of introductions, and I think we have some folks online. So we'll start there start there.

Good afternoon, councilwoman Flora Alvidrez with Lucky District seven.

Okay.

Great. And then we'll come into the room, and I'll start with my gentleman to the left.

Good afternoon. Councilmember Darrell Watson representing Nephi in District 9.

Good afternoon. Paul Cashman, South Denver district six.

Chris Eyens, Denver's perfect tenant.

Kevin Flynn, Southwest Denver district two.

Great. Lovely. So we have two action items, both from Dottie. The first is regarding the scooter bike share contract with Vio, and the second is the facility on contract on call contract amendments. Because we anticipate this may be a long discussion with VO, I did wanna make announcement in advance that we may have to push the on time on call contracts to a different date, and we'll figure out a date certain with Melissa there if you all are comfortable with that.

Okay? We do have folks as a part of the conversation that we're having today, we do have public comment, and so we have a number of folks who are signed up. I understand that we are full here, and I love to see you all here, so thanks so much for being here. And we have some folks in 431 in the Overflow Room. And so after your presentation, I will start to call folks names so that we can make sure they come in here in the event that their names are called. With that, you can introduce yourselves and you can get into the presentation.

Thank you, madam chair. My name is Elena McWhorter. I am the DOTI legislative liaison. I'll let my colleagues introduce themselves. Nathan?

Good to see you, Nathan Pope. I'm a senior city planner, and I

manage the shared by computer program for DOTI. Madam Chair, committee, Nicholas Williams, deputy manager for DOTI.

Hi. My name is Alex Keating. I'm the vice president policy and partnerships at Vio.

So I have to start with a thank you for your time at committee today, but also for your time and energy and feedback over the last eighteen months when DOTI started planning for this procurement process. And we reached out and began council briefings to understand what council member priorities were around our shared bike and scooter program. We also simultaneously started a an educational campaign, give a hoot when you scoop, and issued a public survey to understand what the perceptions of the program were from writers and non writers alike. We utilized that city council process, that community process, and integrating peer city best practices and industry best practices to really guide guide and inform the creation of this request for proposals that was initiated. In the fall, we released this new procurement process, a request proposal for a new operator of the shared bike and scooter program.

The decision and recommendation today to recommend VO operate our program for the next three years is really a direct result of the feedback that we've heard over the past two years and even then some. As you can see here, this is an incredibly popular program and important mobility tool for Denver rights and Dottie absolutely agrees and we utilize the procurement process expectations for our vendors and drive innovation and competition so that we can extract the greatest value for our program and for our Denver community. So this was not by accident. This procurement was by design so that we could really get the greatest benefits for our users. And across all criteria of the procurement process, VO shown.

VO demonstrated the strongest responses and proposals to continue building out a safe, affordable, equitable, and accessible shared bike and scooter program. They really showed up for Denver in this process and we are extracting that value to reinvest directly back into this program. Specifically, what is VO bringing to the table through this contract? One, more affordable pricing for everybody. So starting with a 10% reduction in prices for all, it also comes with a new Denver resident base rate discounted rate that provides an additional 35% discount compared to current costs.

And it has what we believe is a more flexible income qualified access program to better meet the needs of all of our access program users. It also comes with a very diverse and adaptable fleet that we are really excited about. There's going to be more seated options that provide more stability and safety for our riders. There's going to be several technologies that are added in order to combat sidewalk riding and erratic behaviors. And VO also is bringing to Denver a fully W-two in house workforce.

So they are growing ridership and supporting our mobility needs so that they too can reinvest back into their fleet, into their staff, and into their mobility and ride mode shift goals. Excuse me. I want to just add that this decision was not made lightly and it was made by selection committee that was comprised by both DOTI staff and the Department of Finance staff. So we took a close look at not only their written proposals, but we conducted interviews, we did a financial analysis, and we did a fleet demonstration. And again, through all of these steps of the process, VO showed up with the greatest value and allowed us to really pull benefits in every category of our contract that we can directly serve our Denver users with.

I want to also mention that we are choosing to go to a single operator model and I will clarify that that does not mean that this was a sole sourced contract. It did go through this competitive procurement process where all bidders had the same opportunity to propose under the same framework. By going to a single model, we're able to maximize the value of the Denver's market which again, we see is incredibly popular. Since 2021 in the last five year agreement, we provided over 26,000,000 rides with approximately a third of that offered completely for free through our access programs. So we are continuing to deliver in regards to what we've heard from council, what we've heard from community, and what we believe is best for Denver rights, both writers and non writers.

I'll just close with when we did our public survey, the top two obstacles to people riding more and more was price and availability of a scooter or a bike near their origin of their ride. Through this contract, we are going to be delivering on both of those items and then some. We're going to have better, more affordable pricing. We're going to have more flexible and adaptable devices. We're going to have a more flexible income qualified access program.

And by having a single operator model, are going to better distribute the fleet across the entire city to meet the needs of all users. In addition, we have exciting news that with this contract, we are also for the first time entering into a revenue share. So VO is also going to put their money where their mouth is just so to speak and help the city generate dedicated money to reinvest back into the program with financial incentives tied to continuing to grow that income qualified access program. So again, we greatly recognize the popularity, the desire, the demand, the need for this program. And we believe that this competitive procurement process is going to deliver the greatest benefits and outcomes for all users in Denver.

I'll let Nathan take it away from here because you know I love to ramble a lot. Nathan is our true subject matter expert on the program, but we are really excited to share all of the great benefits that we believe d o VO will bring to Denver.

Thanks, Elena. Good to see you all. Nathan Pope, senior city planner. I manage the Shared Bike and Scooter program and and led the procurement process. I always like to start with why we're talking about this, why this matters. You know, shared bikes and scooters in Denver have really become a reliable and sustainable transportation option for Denverites. People are riding these every day, twenty, thirty thousand trips per day. We even you know, on the busiest summer days, we can get 40,000 trips. So really an important part of our transportation ecosystem and reducing car trips as well. Right?

We estimate it's taking off 10,000 to 15,000 car trips from city streets every day and helping with our air and our traffic congestion. Like like mentioned before, it's an affordable and equitable mobility solution. The access program provides free trips to income qualified Denverites, and we'll talk a lot more about how we'll continue that program with the VO access program. And like I mentioned, it's just become an integral part of how folks get around here in Denver. It's regular riders use it to get to, work, to get to health care, and connect to the rest of our system through transit or otherwise.

So that's why we're talking about this today because it's very important. The story so far, folks will remember B Cycle was here in Denver, very successful, but wasn't able to quite scale to reach citywide. Then in 2018, 2019, scooters came to town and we quickly put together a pilot program. We had seven different operators back then and learned a lot from that pilot. We then launched a competitive procurement process to evolve the program past the pilot. That competitive procurement procurement had two operators and that was for a five year contract. Those five year contracts end in May 2026. So that's why we're talking to you all today. We're coming to the end of those five year contracts. But overall, you know, 30,000,000 trips so far taken on this type of program.

Like Elena mentioned, we've been doing a lot of listening over the past year and a year or two years about what's working, in the program, what needs to be upgraded. Talking to a lot of local stakeholders, community groups, RNOs, the DOTI Advisory Board, the Mayor's Pedestrian Bicycle Advisory Board, the Commission for People with Disabilities. And we also conducted a big comprehensive survey of riders and non riders alike. So listening to what folks see today as working, what needs to be changed. We had 2,500 responses over to that survey, and that really helped us confirm our priorities.

Also talking to a lot of our regional partners and peer cities as well, so Seattle, New York, Washington, DC, LA about what's working in their cities and what we can adapt and apply here in Denver. And then talking to the industry to see what's changing, what's stabilized, what's coming, so we have a good understanding of where things are at. We also worked with you all last year pretty extensively on new legislation around sidewalk riding detection requirements, mandatory parking zone, adaptive devices for people with different abilities, and a bunch of other things that, were put into legislation, into law. And we aligned those things so that they would time with the new legislation as well. So that was really the precursor to this process, and I'm excited to have everything lined up through this procurement.

Through all those conversations, our priorities came down to safety and vision zero, equity and access, affordability and mode shift, and parking in the public realm and keeping everything tidy. And so we baked those into our procurement process. This is how we make a decision about what comes next after the five year contracts end. We started off with a request for proposals that we opened it up to any company that provided shared bike and scooter services. They could write a proposal on how they were going to serve Denver.

This was a comprehensive multi phase evaluation process. We had four months of evaluation here and a selection committee of city experts. So we had folks from Department of Finance, folks from the DOTI curbside and parking team, from our office of community and business engagement, helped to evaluate all these different proposals that we received. It was a very robust process. We felt like we got some really good, responses there.

A lot of competition. This is where really folks were trying to outdo each other in, in what they could offer to Denver. The process included written proposals, device demonstrations, interviews, financial reviews, reference checks, and you can see some of the priorities that we baked into there made their way through to the scoring criteria. So overall, a very robust and competitive process. And through that, we ended up selecting VO as the single operator. I think people's first question is how was VO selected? Through that whole procurement process, they were the strongest across all the criteria. They had the best vehicles, lower prices, flexible programs, and all doing that with living wage W2 workforce, which we'll talk a little bit more out more about. I wanna take a moment and let Veo introduce themselves with Alex. I'll I'll pass the mic over to him.

Thank you, John. I'll keep it brief. I'd be clear, really great to be here. Veo was founded in 2017. That means we have about as long a track record as any company in the space, providing dockless bike and scooter share programs across the country. In the past years, we've scaled to The U. S. Largest markets from L. A. To New York and D. C. We are also the only woman and minority owned business in a major operator in the space. I've worked with Veo for about six years and directly report to our founder and CEO, Candace. Two other pieces, we are the most financially stable operator in the space. We were the first to be profitable, meaning we earn more than we spend.

And we have been manufacturing our vehicles in house from day one with the goal of providing a diverse fleet that is more applicable to more users, right? And then I just want to say finally, while we may seem like a newer name in Denver, we've been very focused on the city going back almost six years now. In 2019, rather than entering the larger pilot program in the city, we worked directly with Denver B Cycle at the time to craft a very in-depth response to the initial RFP back in 2020. And while B Cycle is not operating anymore, our relationships there still very much inform our approach to understanding the city, the the varying neighborhoods, how to tailor this program. So, again, a pleasure to be here.

Thanks, Alex. So that was the process. That's how we got here. That's how the selection was made. I wanna talk a little bit about what's in the contract with VO, what the benefits are. Starting off with cheaper prices. Over the years, our prices have ticked up here in Denver from $35.40, 44¢ to per minute is where we're at today. You'll see in that first column, you know, a dollar to unlock 44¢ per minute is basically the standard here in Denver. A cost for a ten minute ride is $5.40. VO is gonna be coming in with a lower base rate of 39¢ per minute and that's about 10% savings where compared to what we have today.

And then very I think we're very excited about is we asked them to propose a resident pass specifically for Denver residents to make this a habit in their daily lives. And that's gonna be 25¢ per minute for Denver residents. So that's a 35% savings based on our current rates and it's locked into the contract as well. So VO is not gonna be able to come in here and and jack up the prices. It's it's locked into the contract. So saving almost $2 on that average ten ten minute trip. So we heard clear from community members that this was a barrier to using this program more, and so we wanted to address it in the in the contract. VO also stands up with their diverse fleet of vehicles. I think this is a place where they really stand out. There's not just the stand up scooter, but seated scooters.

They have a two seated scooter, a cargo scooter, and a trike that'll be available to Denverites to use. The idea here is that more vehicles, more vehicle types, more form factors allows more different types of people to use the program who might not otherwise be interested in it. It also allows folks to take longer trips because they're more comfortable with a seat to go longer and helps folks use them for different types of trips as well where maybe you can you couldn't carry your groceries on a stand up scooter. Well, now you have a big cargo capacity or at least a place to hold your purse, as you go, about your day. VO builds all these devices in house, and so they're not, you know, bought off the shelf and then retrofitted for the ship for the shared market.

They are built specifically with the riders in mind, by VO, and so we're really excited to bring those here to Denver. You'll know a you'll notice a theme in these devices. Most of them have those larger wheels. That was something that was really important to us from a safety perspective and a comfort perspective. You can take a pothole a little bit better, a curb if you need to with those larger wheels.

And they're more intuitively ridden in the bike lane and not on the sidewalk. And so we really wanted to really change fundamentally change the ratio of what devices are out there on the streets today to emphasize those larger wheels, and Vio is able to deliver that. Also, real time detection. These devices are packed with technology, sensors, etcetera, sidewalk riding detection on every device, as well as erratic riding detection. So hard braking, swerving, that is something that'll be detected in real time. Vio's devices also can talk to the user as well and say, hey, you're you're hard braking a lot. Stop doing that. And we're also gonna keep track of it on your account. And so that's a real time education piece and then accountability as well. I went through this and I'd even mentioned the trike.

I think that is a place that really stands out. Vio is the only folks who are able to deliver the world's first shared trike. Great for people with, balance challenges or other disabilities, designed with that community in mind and also just has a great cargo capacity. You could fit your weeks worth of groceries in there and we're excited to be the first city to begin rolling those out.

I'll let Nathan take a breath here and just add that this is one area we were really excited to see VO's proposal and their emphasis on developing these devices in partnership with different advocacy groups, disability groups, transit groups, mobility groups to again really take that direct feedback from users on what they would need or would like to see to make the devices more comfortable, more convenient, more safe for them to ride. So helping us provide more devices to meet more needs.

I think a couple of them are staged out front of the building if folks want to do a test ride, Vio's always happy to bring them if folks wanna kick the tires, see them in the flesh. So cheaper prices, more diverse vehicles, the equity programs. Really wanna take a moment to talk about these because they have been very successful here in Denver, and it's something we wanna continue and evolve. The main one is the access program. That's the program that lets income qualified Denverites ride for free. So it'll be the same eligibility. If you're part of Lyme or Bird Access today, you'll be eligible to be part of VO Access in the future. I think the difference here and perhaps the upgrade is the free riding time is gonna be a little bit different. Instead of three free rides per day, you'll get 60 of ride time per day for free, and that up that updates every every day. You get that sixty minutes back.

So, folks will be able to take, three twenty minute trips today and six ten minute trips tomorrow. Whatever works for your schedule and your needs, folks will have that more flexibility in their program. The average access trip is about fifteen minutes, so we see this as a net benefit for folks to really have more flexibility on how they utilize the access program. But if you're part of Lyme access or Bird access today, you'll be able to use VO access moving forward. We also, want to continue the geographic ex equity piece of this where 30% of the fleet is deployed into, equity focused neighborhoods every single day.

So they're not just concentrated in the highest ridership areas. There's also continued to be discount rates for any, trips that start in these neighborhoods, without having to sign up for the access program or otherwise. And also continuing to reduce those barriers. You don't need a smartphone to unlock a device. You can use text or call, and you can load funds without needing a bank account as well. So continuing to lower as many barriers we can for folks to use this program.

I'll take the opportunity for the first plug for anyone who is currently on Bird or Lyme's access program. The access program is going to continue through VO and you can already go to voride.com/denver to start that enrollment process so that on day one, are ready to ride.

Increased accountability. We heard loud and clear from folks at this table and other community members that this was a priority. I think clearly in house w two employees is what VO is gonna be able to bring to the the table. They don't rely on contractors or subcontractors to do the rebalancing or move devices around throughout the day. They keep things tidy using VO employees and VO uniforms with VO vans out there to really increase that visibility and maturity of the program and take it to the the next level with a lot of local hiring, living wage jobs, a mix of full time and part time jobs as well, so folks have that flexibility.

We also have the hybrid parking system. We have the mandatory parking zones as part of the legislation that was passed last year that requires folks to park in the corrals, we're gonna continue to expand those in our highest ridership Vio is going to continue to build out the infrastructure, the parking infrastructure. We call those corrals. And so they'll build at least a 150 new parking corrals on top of the roughly 300 we have today. And they have in areas where you don't have the highest ridership, where we don't have corrals, real time technology that helps prevent, missed parking before it occurs, where you scan the, parked vehicle and it doesn't let you end your trip until it can confirm that you're not blocking a sidewalk.

So what does that mean for Denver rights? And and kind of quick summary here, cheaper prices, locked in rates that are 10 to 35% cheaper with VO, more ways to ride with a diverse comfortable, fleet in the first self balancing trike, more flexible equity programs, continuing the access program with more flexible program structure, and increased accountability, especially through those w two in house workforce with local living wage jobs. Those are the highlights. We've put that all into the contract type is a license agreement is what we call it. We heard loud and clear that five years was maybe too long. That's what we did last year. So this year, we're shortening that period to a three year license agreement. There is an optional two year renewal if things are going well, but overall, that would have to come to you. This is a three year agreement, a bit shorter. There's a license agreement.

We have a scope of work, a service level agreement that I'll get into and that multi year pricing plan locked into the contract. I think the thing to call out here is our financial partnership with Vio where they will be paying $250 per device per year as part of this contract. And so that comes to, you know, over $2,000,000 that'll be new to this program on top of all of the other benefits that VIO is bringing. There are incentives in there on that annual amount for growing the access program. So if they're doing a good job of growing that program, they won't pay that full fee.

But overall, we we see millions of dollars coming in through this program. There's also additional this contract is almost double in size compared to the previous one. Market transition plan in there, so learning a lot through this process and applying that to the new contract, data handoff requirements, and the like. You know, I think there's a lot of questions about going from two operators down to one and wanted to address those head on. I think the place to start is our current system is not this beautiful fifty fifty competition where they're pushing each other to do better.

It's a very unbalanced system where one of the operators has, you know, 85% of the market and the other one has 15 is kind of struggling along. And so this not this doesn't really generate that much competition. What it does is put a lot of pressure on keeping market share. That's what they want to do. They want your ride and so they're gonna do whatever they can to keep your ride, including making it a little bit easier to park or a little bit easier to ride, where maybe you're not quite turning on all the tools you can to get those outcomes that we want. So it really creates market share pressure that incentivizes operators to reduce that friction. We actually get downward competition instead. By moving to a single operator, this allows us to make a more valuable market. It's more valuable for them to have a single operator. We're able to capture that value into the contract.

So we're able to get those lower prices, those better vehicles, the w two workforce, and the financial partnership, all because we've made the market more valuable by moving to a single operator and then lock those that value into the contract how we want it. From a rider perspective, it gives you all of your options in one app. You don't have to go and see which one's closest to you. You can just look all in one place. If folks are non riders or your council office or council staff, it's a lot easier to communicate kind of any concerns you have.

You can go straight to to VO. You don't have to worry about is it a blue scooter, is it red scooter? You you can just go and understand and have confidence that it's VO. It's also gonna help us reduce overdeployments in our highest ridership areas and spread the fleet more equitably throughout the city. You know, these companies all know that in at this intersection, there's going to be 10 rides today.

So company a puts 10 scooters out, company b puts 11 scooters out because they both want those 10 rides. And then we have an over deployment in this part of the city and not as many scooters in other parts of the city. So by moving to a single operator, they can put the 10 scooters there and then they can take the the rest and spread them and create new value, create new opportunities for folks to ride, and really grow the pie of who where this program is available. So overall, we we see this as maximizing value for the the city, and it's creating a system focused on outcomes, not just on market share. We have a service level, agreement with Veo that's baked into the contract.

It's about 20 different metrics that we're tracking them against, response times, deployment, operations, and very clear metrics on how we're measuring them and clear escalating accountability and penalties for them. So we're going to be able to very clearly measure the success of this program. We're you know, we've looked at, VO's business model. We're very confident that they'll be able to deliver all of these things. But, know, we're also thinking about contingencies should something happen.

If, we need to, we can bring in a second operator and the the contract allows us to do that. So if things are not going well, we have the option to have someone come in and complement the program, have that flexibility. If VO needs to leave the market, if something changes, we also have flexibility to reassign the contract to a new qualified operator. We have experience doing this when, you know, Lyft was originally one of the operators here. They had a corporate decision that they were no longer going to do dockless scooters, and so we worked with them to reassign their license to Bird. And that was successful and very smooth, and that's something we could do here as well. So we we really tried to think through all of these different contingencies should we need them. But overall, we're very confident in the ability to deliver. Community and partner engagement. This is a top priority.

You know, these these folks are very much this this program very much impacts a lot of people and a lot of community groups, so we want that to continue. We have a a very clear community engagement and partnership plan that we'll be crafting with them. They have to minimum of host 20 in person events per year. That's a new requirement. And then targeted outreach on the access and the adaptive programs as well. Helmet distribution is also a key part of this where they're going to be distributing, you know, over 1,000 helmets every year to to anyone who needs one. But overall, I'll let Alex talk a little bit about what their community partnership work looks like and and everything around that.

Yeah. Thank you. I think, you know, the great the great news here is that there's been from from announcement to launch, have about five months, and we've been trying to use that time as well as well as possible to build relationships and start doing the outreach. To date, beyond speaking with with counsel, we've had 18 or so local organizations, community groups, and such engaged already in helping us spread the word. We've done multiple in market events.

So far, we've interacted with upwards of 1,000 folks in the market who are interested in continuing to have access programming available. Our partnerships run the gamut from community groups through to the TMAs, RNOs, working very closely with RTD, with the Denver Housing Authority and others. So we feel good about where we are, but there's a lot of work to do still and we're excited for the opportunity to work with the council members' offices to continue getting the word out as this as this contract progresses. I believe we have another 16 events already scheduled throughout the the city as we head through the month, but look forward to putting more on the calendar with with you all with all of your assistance.

Great. So talking about transition, you know, this is a a change, and I think the first place to start is that we're gonna have an overlap. Burden Limes contracts end on May 16. We're gonna start VO on May 1. So we're gonna have half a month of transition time when VO is ramping up and the current operators are are winding down, and that is going to make sure there's no gaps in service for folks.

It's an overlapping rollout to to prevent those service gaps. You know, the the access program, the income qualified program is our top priority. It's VO's top priority to make sure that folks who rely on Lyme and bird access have a really smooth transition over to VO access. I think you have about a thousand folks already, pre enrolled to make that transition. It's a very smooth process and VO's made it even easier if you can use your, Lyme or bird access, eligibility, show that you've in that program as your proof of enrollment for Veo access.

So you don't have to go dig out your your SNAP, or your Medicaid. You can just show that you are part of Lyme access to join Veo access. So that's going be a big targeted campaign here once we get the the assume if and when this contract is approved by city council, we'll really lean into this transition and make sure folks know that this is happening. Come May, in that overlap period though, we don't want we want to make sure that it's folks don't miss their appointment. But they don't they rely on this transportation and they still are able to do it to get to work without having to worry about something changing.

So we're doing what we call instant access, where if you relied on Lyme access or bird access, you can scan a Vio device. In the app, you'll be able to say, yes, I'm part of the access program. And on the spot, you can ride for free without any other eligibility information needed. They're trusting folks to self verify to make that transition. VO will follow-up with you within ten days, and you'll have to show your proof of enrollment then.

But on the spot, you're we're not gonna we're gonna make sure that everybody can make their appointments, make their work obligations, and then they can come back and self identify later. So over that sixteen day period, you'll have ten days to to follow-up and provide that enrollment information, and then that will continue throughout May. You'll have to follow-up within forty eight hours to confirm your eligibility, but we're not gonna we're gonna make sure that folks are not denied service just because they didn't know about this transition. They're gonna be able to continue to ride for free. Best place to stay up to date with this transition and learn more about the program is voride.com/denver.

A lot of great information about the program in there. You can see all the devices, learn about focus groups and community opportunities. It's also a great place for hiring information. VO is gonna be doing a lot of hiring for those w two benefits employees, both part time and full time, and so would encourage anyone, to who's interested to to check out this website and and apply. So the the ask of counsel will be a resolution for approval of a three year license agreement with VO for the operation of Denver shared by computer program.

We're here at committee on eighteenth. It would go to mayor council on the twenty fourth, and then full full council reading on March 31 before VO launched on May 1. So overall, this is my summary slide. We're really excited. We put this competitive procurement process together and had a lot of really good, proposals that came in. It was very robust and lots of competition. We are really excited with the selected, operator Vio. We believe that them and a single operator is really gonna maximize value for Denver, Cheaper prices, more ways to ride, flexible equity programs, and increased accountability is all what this contract delivers, and we're excited to have Vio in town. Anything else to add?

I think Nathan covered it all. Yeah. Well, we're excited to cover questions and hear from the the community that showed up for comment today.

Great. Thank you. Thank you so much for the presentation. Before we get into the questions from the council members, we do have fifteen minutes of public comment, and we have 19 folks signed up. So I am going to expand it to twenty minutes for folks who have signed up. And I wanted to read the names in the event that there are folks who are in 04/31 and not in a year to give them time to transition, and then I'll give you the instruction if you are a speaker. So the first person I have is Colby Campbell. The second is Dustin Wilburn Wilburn. The next is Keith Moore. The next is Jessica Rowe.

And then this last one is Arethian. I hope that's correct. Bohannon. And if those folks can come, each speaker so this item does require fifteen minutes of public comment. Each speaker will have two minutes to speak, and then we'll take the questions from committee. Alyssa will be keeping track of the time that you all have to speak. And so if we could have the first speaker, Colby Campbell, come to the mic here and let us know what you have to say. Introduce yourself, please.

Hi, I'm Colby Campbell. I'm a Lime Access user. I'm using my voice today to speak up for extending Lime Access program. I used to be very hesitant to even climb on any type of public transit, let alone a scooter or a bike because I was terrified of them. But then flash forward to my dog getting sick and I had to be there with her.

It was transportation problems all around. Lyme access came to me and it made it so easy to get to her and make her transition so much easier to pass. And I'm one of over 300,000 writers that this program already exists with and I use it weekly, let alone every day. A new company would require all users to transition to a new program or app and most of them don't even want to use the current one. I think an extension for twelve to eighteen months would help test either a new company or provide users to get out there, get used to dealing with a new type of access or gives them the Lime access, the ability to continue on if need be.

Thank you.

Thank you

so much. Really appreciate your time. The next speaker we have is Dustin Wilburn.

Hello, my name is Dustin Wilburn and I'm with Lime Access. Denver shouldn't gamble the future of micromobility system on an unproven operator that has never managed a program at this scale, especially when something is already working. Extending Lime's contract for another twelve to eighteen months is the safest, most responsible option to ensure riders aren't left behind. Rushing a decision without a thoughtful transition risk disrupting the daily lives of people who rely on this service, particularly through Lime Access, which serves tens of thousands of riders. Nearly 30,000 people have signed up, with thousands depending on it every week.

And this program took years to build. It cannot be replaced overnight or within a rushed two week transition without real consequences. Moving too quickly to a smaller untested operator could leave vulnerable riders without reliable transportation. The the city should prioritize stability over disruption and protect what is already supporting so many people. Please don't rush this decision. Real lives will be impacted. Real lives like mine, where Lyme has helped me find stability in my day to day life. Please protect the Lyme access and the community that depends on it. Thank you. Keep Lyme.

Keith Moore.

I think he has to leave. Know a lot of people have to go to work. He might be

in the overflow room.

Okay. If he is in the overflow room, feel free to come to the committee room and if he walks in, I'll make sure we get him. Jessica Rowe? Jessica Rowe? If you are in the overflow room, again, I'm happy to take you as a speaker when you come back. Rin Lien? How do you say it? I'm so sorry. My deepest apologies in advance. I hate when people pronounce my name wrong.

You did great.

My name

is I'd love that for me.

Hannon. I'm a Lyme access writer. I live, or reside in Defined District 9. Over the last three years or so, Lyme has positively impacted my life. It has made me a positive impact on my own life.

It has helped me get to the birth of two of my granddaughters. It has helped me keep a job that I was working after the hours of public transportation like RTD were running. And that has been so big. It has really challenged me to build positive routines. It has been a vehicle for me to make it to what I call my new healthy habits that have made myself and so many other people just smile.

It has taken me Lyme access program has I have used as a vehicle to battle down the estrangement of my family, bringing actually setting me back into the picture to where I had basically just dissolved. You know, I can't be there because you guys are too far away. I can't be there at this time or that time because there's no bus running. And while now I'm taking bigger chunks out of life so I could be more and more independent and self sufficient, I speak on behalf of posterity of those who come behind me because I know that there will be more who will possibly be challenged to be more for themselves and more for their families. That's all I have.

I do ask that you extend this program at least, if very least, in the transition phase so that no one is left behind.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks for your time. The next five speakers, in case folks are in 04:31, I have Michael Miller, Tommy Stevens or Stephens, David Kurth, Mehdi, Mahabuk, maybe, and Ellie Baker. If those folks are in 04:31, please let me know. But Michael Miller, you're up first. Alright. Tommy Stevens or Steffens?

I mean,

it's in the middle of the day, I understand.

Yeah.

Yeah. Thank you. David again, if folks coming down, I'm happy to take you. David Kirth.

Members of the City Council Transportation Infrastructure Committee, I am David Kurth. I reside at 891 14th Street in the Spire in the Upper Downtown area and I am the chair of the Upper Downtown Neighborhood Association's Scooter Subcommittee. We were really happy with Dottie's development for the request for proposal for shared bike and scooter services. Dottie and Nathan especially, listened to our concerns over the past years regarding the lip service that the current providers, Bird and especially Lyme, have given to, the safety of pedestrians in the downtown area. There is little or no provider policing of careless and dangerous scooter rider behavior and improper scooter parking.

We were very pleased with when a new single provider for the shared ride services was announced. While competition is sometimes good, it is not necessarily in the provision of a public service like shared bike and scooter services. Since pricing for riders and the amount of equity services provided are set in the contract with Citi, multiple scooter providers attempt to maximize their profits by cutting corners on maintenance of devices, using contract services to move devices, flooding high ridership events with more scooters than necessary to maximize their shares. Also, they will not weed out bad customers for the fear of losing revenue. Dottie can more easily oversee one provider to ensure that they comply with the provisions of the contract.

It's our understanding that pricing and equity services are specified in the contract and that these are advantageous to users, especially equity users. We fully support the selection of one vendor, Vio, to provide shared bike and scooter services to Denver and look forward to meeting with their representatives to continue to make our concerns known. Thank you.

Thank you. That's your time. Thank you. Sir, your name?

Yes. Michael Miller.

Okay. Go ahead, Michael.

Good afternoon, council members. My name is Mike Miller. I am the co chair of the Pedestrian Safety Committee for the Lower Downtown Neighborhood Association. Over the past several years, our committee has worked with DOTI residents, businesses, and the current vendors in hopes of improving how micro mobility operates in and around Downtown Denver. What we learned is straightforward.

The two vendor model creates a fragmented system that is difficult to manage and even harder to enforce. Two vendors means two technology stacks, two writer interfaces, and two separate data environments. When issues arise, whether it's unsafe riding, speed limits, no ride zones, or improper parking, DOTI must coordinate with two companies operating under two different policies and practices. The city receives incomplete or at best siloed data about rider behavior, safety, and injuries. That fragmentation slows down problem solving and weakens accountability.

Residents also experience this directly navigating multiple apps to report issues. This isn't about scooters. It's about system management. A single vendor create system creates one technology platform, one rider interface, one unified data system, and one accountable operator. This will allow the city to analyze behavior across the entire fleet, implement safety improvements more quickly, deploy innovation rapidly, and hold a single vendor responsible for meeting Denver's standards, ordinances, and laws.

Accountability requires clarity. Two vendors creates ambiguity. To be clear, our position is on structure, not on the specific vendor selection. Regardless of who the operator is, a single vendor structure delivers a strong foundation, one that enables the city to manage the program effectively and efficiently and creates an outcome that's more transparent, more accountable, and ultimately safer for riders and residents alike. Thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate your time. The next, speakers we have up is Jeremy Seniz, Joseph Capello, Rebecca White, Devin Morrison, Arnold Arnoldo Collin. If you all are in the overflow, please feel free to come down. Jeremy, I have you up first if you are in the room.

Wasn't called first, but I guess I'm forced.

Ellen Baker, I'm so sorry. Didn't realize they were online, and then I have you up next. Thank you.

Sorry about that.

Ellen Baker, we're happy to hear from you.

Can you hear me now? Yes. My apologies. Good afternoon, council members. My name is Elle Baker, and I live in Lower Downtown and serve as a board member for Ladona and the Lower Downtown Neighborhood Association Pedestrian Safety Committee. I'm a co chair with Mike Miller. I'm here today as both a committee member and a resident who walks these streets every day. Lodo is a pedestrian first neighborhood. People live here, work here, and move through the area primarily on foot. Sidewalks were built to protect pedestrians, not function as lanes for motorized vehicles.

Over the past several years, residents have been living with the realities of the current system. During nearly two years of working with the current two vendor structure, we've repeatedly seen challenges it creates. Two apps to report problems, two companies responsible when sidewalks are blocked, and two technology systems implementing policies differently. And when something goes wrong, it's often unclear where the accountability actually sits. We've watched contractors swap batteries on scooters already blocking pedestrian right of ways.

We've seen inconsistent enforcement of speed zones and no ride areas. Those issues have become much harder to address when responsibility is divided. A single vendor system creates a clear point of accountability. One operator, one platform, and one comprehensive data set that allows the city to truly understand rider behavior. What matters to residents isn't which company is selected, but there is one clear standard, one system, and one point of accountability.

If the city wants better data, safer streets, and faster problem solving, it needs a system designed for accountability. The question isn't whether micromobility belongs in Denver. I think it does. The question is whether we manage it as a coordinated system or a fragmented one. Right now, we have fragmentation, and a single vendor structure gives the city control, data, and accountability to finally get this right. Thank you.

You so much. Thank you, sir. What's your name? Arnold. Okay.

Good afternoon, city council members. My name is Arnoldo Colon. I'm the regional manager for Bird in Denver and the state of Colorado. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. I stand here not only as a representative of Bird, but alongside many in house W two employees that we already have and have worked in this program since 2018.

Denver's mobility program did not become a national model overnight and it took over seven years of collaboration, operational improvements and trust. Together with the city, we have delivered over more than 30,000,000 trips and served millions of riders, have maintained one of the most respected micro mobility systems in the country, all with virtually no violations recorded by DOTI. So today, I stand here proud of the program we helped build, yet also deeply concerned by the decision made by DOTI, which essentially replaces experience within experience. Experience matters because we know firsthand where the most common issues arise, how to proactively address them. We put in the work over several years to build an extensive network of community partners, businesses that improve access to our service and make it more responsive.

And we have thousands of low income residents who use the Bird or Lyft app every day to use our e bikes and scooters to commute across the city. The companies selected to replace those also has limited operational scale with total ridership across the country only slightly larger than the program they are expected to run here in Denver. In other words, the city is preparing to entrust its largest mobility program to an operator whose entire track record barely exceeds the size of the system they're about to inherit. There's also the question of employment, a justification for the decision of heavily referenced W two jobs. However, this is not an innovation and better already employs a full team of W2 employees in Denver with up to seven years of experience.

Our team took many years to build and we only keep the very best. Additionally, public information shows a selected company plans to quickly hire over 15 fresh drivers out the gate at launch. Anyone familiar with Denver seasonal ridership understands what happens next. When winter arrives and ridership drops, hours will shrink and layoffs will follow. Even more concerning is their own VO booster program which encourages independent to That's

your time.

Mr. Thank you. Mr.

Thank you.

Mr. Cooke:

Hey, good afternoon. I'm Joe Cooke: And I'm a downtown resident and I work with the folks of the registered neighborhood organization UPDANA. So I too walk these sidewalks all the time, day in and day out, and I'm pretty psyched about where we're headed. I was very impressed with the system whereby Doty would attend our meetings and hear what our concerns were, and then I saw them reflected in the legislation you guys passed. I saw them reflected in the request for proposals.

I see them reflected in the presentation, and Mr. Pope covered all that better than I could ever do. I just want to say that when I heard there was one winner of the bid or the contract and that it wasn't one of our current providers, I was relieved. I think we're disappointed. The sidewalks downtown hopefully will get better, but it's a zoo out there.

And they've had five years to make improvements and they haven't come fast enough. I call it too little, too late. I'm also kind of excited personally about that sit down scooter with the basket on it. I might finally get these 60 year old bones onto a scooter for the first time and head down to the supermarket. So thank you, and thank you for your work on this.

Thank you so much. We have another speaker, Devin Morrison, online.

Can everybody hear me?

We can.

Perfect. I just wanna state, my name is Devin Morrison, and I was recently hired as the maintenance operations manager for Vio's Denver team. As such, I will be overseeing a group of more than 25 w two mechanics that we have already hired as well as supporting the 100 plus in house w two technicians that will help us run our day to day operations in Denver. As someone who has been working in the micro mobility industry in Denver and throughout Colorado, including the last or including three years with Lyme, I'm grateful for this opportunity to provide testimony today. Most of all, I am excited to see this transition from Lyme and Bird to Vio, as it will meaningfully improve the service in Denver, bring reliable jobs to the community, and make micro mobility, a whole more environmentally, and sustainable option in the city.

Having worked for other operators in the industry, including Lyme, I can say for sure that VO is investing an unprecedented amount into the in house work force that will drive this program, but I'm also glad to see the commitment of the more affordable, more affordable resident pricing, and a more diverse vehicle fleet option, for the community in Denver that they can more easily access this service. Currently, me and my team are assembling the vehicles, so I've seen the quality up close. And, additionally, finally, to to bring up last, I'm I'm proud that I will be working with a team that is fully committed to the environmental sustainability. I love this industry because of the environmental benefits. But at Lime, you know, we use gas powered vans and our subcontractors as well.

So, that has pretty much decreased any any, environmental, you know, carbon emission reductions or anything that Lyme had brought with their vehicles. So I'm really proud, to see how this, program will all come together and not only be a great source of transportation for the community, but also improve the environmental and sustainable options and initiatives that the city has. And in my mind, this is how a true electric and bike scooter share program should be. So, thanks again for allowing me the opportunity to speak here.

Thank you so much. And then we have time for one more speaker at Brayden Davis. Winnie Smith.

Hi. My name is Braden Davis, and, me and my girlfriend, we used to lime scooters to get back and forth from work. And I used to live in Seattle, and I know the VO platform wasn't it didn't work that well. And I always gravitated towards the Lime scooters more only because I know they work and it's a it's been, what, seven years since since they first started, and I don't feel like you we should go to, like, a new model over some that is, like, already established, already I don't know. I don't know what the word is, but, like, already established and everything.

And I feel like we should give Lyme the what this gentleman was saying, like the twelve to eighteen months period, and then after that, see what comes up next and stuff. Thank you. Have a good one.

Ms. Smith, do you want to speak? Thank you. And you'll wrap us up.

Hi, everyone. My name is Whitney Smith. I'm a Lyme access writer, but I recently just started using their Lyme assist vehicles and I live in District 9. And usually around my neighborhood, the Lyme is right there, and I've used it to do emergency stuff for my children. When they get sick, I can use it to go to the hospital with them.

Like, they'll walk beside me and I'll go slow. I also had an emergency with my son. He's allergic to cashews. And he took a granola bar from one of his teammates and ended up in the hospital. They had to rush him. And I live two blocks away from the hospital. So I had to meet them there. Scariest day of my life. But if it wasn't for that program, I wouldn't have been able to get there. Recently, my daughter got sick, needed to go to the hospital.

She had the flu and strep, and I was able to get her there. I just had to send an email, and it was, like, about two or four two or three days before I knew what was going on with her. She had a high fever, and I was trying to solve it at home first. Then I was like, Okay, she's gonna have to go to the hospital. But I didn't want to have to wait for an appointment.

So I emailed and they sent me a Lyme assist, brought it to my door, and I was able to get her down to the hospital. And I got to keep that for twenty four hours for free, and that really helped me. So to keep Lime around for at least twelve to eighteen months because they've already been here.

Thank you, miss Smith. Really appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you to everyone who showed up to provide public that didn't get an opportunity to be able to provide public comment. I really appreciate you all being here. With that, we are going to get in to questions from the members of the committee. I am going to limit you all today to two questions, but I will put you back in the queue because we do have everyone pretty much in the queue. And with that, we are kicking it off with councilman Hines followed by councilman Flynn. Thank

you, committee chair. I imagine we will postpone the next set of items. So thanks, Ali,

for that.

So to to Dottie, will you talk a little bit about your decision to treat a civil provider, specifically about how this relates to the decisions other cities have made?

Yeah. So we thought long and hard about what it means to have two operators and what it means to have one operator. I think the the place we looked at first was what's our current system. We have two operators, but it's really unbalanced, where one of them has the vast majority. Talking to peer cities, that is a very similar situation, Seattle, LA, and some other cities as well, where they're they're basically on the verge of having a single operator, effectively do. And so we talked to them and they are facing similar challenges that we highlighted around the of having a single of having two operators and that not being effective. And so that would give us confidence to that we were in a similar position and we can move to a single operator and have successful results. I don't know if there's anything to add there.

And and other cities have made the decision to go to a single provider.

Is that is that right? Other cities effectively have a single provider. We're probably first to officially make the move, but it's really not that big of a chain.

Of our size. A number of very smaller universities obviously operate a single provider on there. But of our size, yeah, we'd be a little bit on the vanguard on there. But as as Nathan said, effectively, a number of cities have ended up there, and that's not a situation we wanna find ourselves in.

Got it. Let's talk about Vision Zero. In 2025, we had ninety three people become Vision Zero statistics, deaths that could have been prevented by city design or policy decisions. Eight were scooter related, so the existing vendors. As someone who use uses wheels to get around, I've had this wheelchair about a month and a half, I've already put a 118 miles on it.

There's a odometer right there. I want you to dig into safety and how vehicle composition kinda touched on it, but and it was a it was a bullet point in the slide, but go into more detail. You talked like, why does Veo's composition lead to inherently a safer fleet? Yeah.

I think we were very conscious that those smaller wheels have can be more challenging and have safety implications, and there's some research that backs that up. So in our procurement, we said we want the majority of the fleet to have larger wheels, which is different than what we have today. And then VIO was able to really deliver and show why they are the the best option to do that. I'll let Alex talk a little bit about their vehicles themselves, but for us, it was really important to have those larger wheels devices, and have those be the the majority of the fleet.

I can mention, I mean, it's been a goal for VHO going back to about 2020. We've been operating seated scooters, since 2020, and that has become the majority of our fleet. Seated vehicles are the majority of fleet across the country. Well, not just in in Denver. In Denver, that'll be about 70% of the vehicles, right, as the goal. The those vehicles get fewer reported crashes and injuries as a percentage of miles traveled across all of our networks. And so we we see real immediate value. I previously was one of the folks managing Vision Zero for New York City when I worked for the New York City Department of Transportation and appreciate that the tracking of data as a miles traveled and exposure really matters, and we see impact there.

And I think it was also add by one of our our public commenters here that I think especially, you know, when it started seven years ago, it was my second week at Doddy on there, we had two types of vehicles. You had pedal bicycles and you had little scooters on there. And these were very much not necessarily designed for heavy industrial use that they get now. Now what you're seeing is that full spectrum of what was on that slide there. And and I think there's a more natural you know, one of the challenges, obviously, with your legislation here last year about folks riding on the sidewalks or riding where they shouldn't be.

I think while there'll be market, but I think when you see these other types of vehicles, I think it is a very natural folks have evolved and I think better understand the need to ride in those lanes. But I think when you're on a bike, there's really much less question on there. And so that just having folks ride where they should be and just the the greater level of visibility of folks, I think, is also another safety factor.

Two two more things. The vehicles have a lot of technology to help with, you know, heartbreaking, you know, unsafe riding behavior. They undercarriage lighting, so they're much more visible at night. We're also requiring them to give out a a ton of helmets, you know, over over a thousand helmets a year. And so anybody who gets wants a helmet can get one. And and they'll also provide a discount for folks who use the helmet. You take a quick selfie. It says sees you have a helmet, and you get a discount on your ride. Encouraging folks to to have that as well.

And last piece I'll add, we're also really excited about the audible alerts that provide that real time coaching to riders in the field rather than just having an a beeper, some other alert that is retroactive and maybe understand confusing to understand. So the the real time audible alerts will better coach people to make behavior decisions in real time. Thank

you so much. Really appreciate it. That's here too, but I need to wait you back in the queue. Thank you. Councilman Flynn?

Thank you, madam chair. Just a couple questions, and I wouldn't need to get back.

But Okay.

The Denver resident program, which is new. Correct? I represent a district on the corner of the city that borders seven other jurisdictions. So I have four or five ZIP codes that spill over, and two of them are entirely 801, which is suburban, not 802. So I have enormous problems with some of my residents being told when they call city hall, well, you don't you live in Lakewood or you live in Littleton. I have a Littleton ZIP code. How are you going to verify Denver residency for this program?

Yeah. Can jump in. So, I mean, we have resident discount pricing in other markets as well. And typically, way that works is through a third party ID verification. You just need a document or ID that says Denver, Right? It's the same way you would show. That's typically how it goes, and that's the fastest way to do it quickly. But I think people can call in and talk with counsel talk with our customer service to troubleshoot, but it's instant based on a document that has Denver as an address.

My driver's license says Littleton. Bingo.

I was gonna say, I know that some of those are set by the your post office on there. And so, yeah, we'll make sure we have those addresses in there that though they say Littleton are in the city city, the city boundaries to make sure that they'll show up as Denver.

And to be clear, that's fully customizable on our back end. I just wouldn't pretend to know every name of every zip code right now. We have to get that in the system.

Can you tell every other city agency as well? It'll solve a lot

of my problem.

The and the second question, the equity areas, these are not the equity these are not the areas where an equity rider must reside. These are the areas where you will deploy the vehicles, 30% of the vehicles along these. Correct. What are these based on? I'm looking at my district, and I don't see rhyme or reason. They don't look like they're not census tracts. They're not

I believe they're block groups, and they're they come from the DODDI equity index. So it's an amalgamation of different factors.

Are these different than the current program?

They are tweaked. We haven't tweaked them since the the start of the contract, so it's new data that's being fed into this.

Could you provide before Check. This comes to the floor, could you provide the current map and then so we can compare with this map. Are these are there more areas here? Are there fewer? We worked hard to

make sure that the square footage or the square miles is the same. So overall, but we'll absolutely be fine.

Might be moved around some somewhat. Alright. Thank you. Last thing, would in the spirit of the legislation that's moving through council, could you provide us with the contract documents? So we've Soon. Sooner rather than later.

So so far, we've attached the the scope of work, which to me is about 85, 90% of the of the contract. We also included a sample agreement, which is most the sample agreement. There's a couple tweaks there, so provide as much as we can, we'll definitely be providing more.

And we're, of course, working closely with you, councilman Parady, on that. But yes.

Yeah. I don't wanna wait until the Thursday before the Monday meeting to see it. Thank you. That's all.

Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Councilwoman Aldidres, who is online, and then I have council president Zanibel.

Thank you, committee chair. And thank you to Dottie for your work on this and for letting us in on this procurement process. One of my questions is, has VIO ever managed an equity program of this size?

I I don't believe they've managed an equity program of this size. I don't believe really anyone outside of Denver has managed an equity program of this size. We have the the arguably the largest in the in the nation, if not the world, of this size. So I I don't think there's too many, other operators that would be able to

Allison, do wanna speak to speak to that?

I

mean, I can add. Yes. I I think as a single operator, a program this large will be the largest in the country. And I I think streamlining the process will bring value. We we process tens of thousands of access applications across all of our markets.

I think in 2020 between 2024 and 2025, that was well over 51,000. So we're used to doing upwards of 25, 30,000 a year. What we've done recently is invest very heavily in new systems to make sure that that's even more rapid and sort of automated system. And, of course, the instant access program we're rolling out here is the first of its kind. So from a back end and employ and sort of staffing perspective, we don't see there to be a challenge to onboard. We wanna get as many people in the door before launch as possible.

And if I could add, I would say five years ago when we developed this program, the current had not operated an equity program of this size because no one had operated an equity program of this size. Five years ago, we basically based the entire procurement around how many free rides can you give Denver residents on there, and that's what they bid on. Now we've learned a lot, and I think this procurement represents a much more sophisticated view on that. But as we went through the procurement, this was the financial ability and the manufacturing ability was a major factor on this. We're confident of Vio's ability to deliver on these promises because, yes, we are continuing even with kind of more conditions and more considerations in this.

We set the tone nationally and globally on the number of rides. And I think the response you hear today reflects why that was such a great priority on there, on that. And so we're gonna continue to do that, and we're very confident of Vio's ability to to meet that.

Thanks. Thanks. Councilwoman Abigail, your second question.

I appreciate that, and I think that it took a long time for our current operator to get up to this level, and I do have concerns about the ability of a new provider too. But my second question is around the procurement and the decision process. We've seen in cities like Columbus that have, even with a strong procurement process, provide a single provider model, and it creates real risks. Service interruptions reduced ridership and challenges maintaining competition. In fact, when one provider paused operations, access dropped significantly, And that is a risk that I I am not sure I heard that Dottie really considered.

Can you speak to that?

Yeah. For the for the question, we've been in close contact with Columbus for over a year because they just went through a a similar procurement process. And so, you know, very aware of the the, their procurement process. I think what we have here is a very, clear service level agreement with Vio that if they drop below certain standards, there's requirements on things they have to do to to fix them. If they can't, we have the option to bring in another operator to have that two operator market, if VO isn't able to deliver. We've looked at their finances. We've looked at their business model. We're confident that they're able to do that, but we've thought through these contingencies to make sure that if something does happen, we're, not losing any level of service, for the community.

Thank you. I I that still concerns me. Bringing in a new provider isn't something that's gonna happen overnight. Thank you, committee chair.

So much, councilwoman Albigrez. I have council president Sandoval and then council protean Romero Campbell up next.

Thank you. Thank you. We were talking about the access for the sixty minutes versus the three rides a day. Did you reach out? What was your community process to understand if that was the correct model?

So we have a couple of things. Worked a lot. We were actually pursuing a grant to help subsidize the program, so did a lot of community research there with Denver Street's partnership in particular and leaning on the work that they do in community. And then also talking to peer cities about what their models are and what works for them. Overall, what we see is the average trip length for someone on the access program, we have great data on this, is fifteen minutes. So right now, you get three fifth you get three rides per day up to thirty minutes, but essentially people aren't using. They're leaving a lot of that time on the table because they only need to take a fifteen minute trip. And so they were only really getting forty five minutes of free ride time per day. So we see this as a way to maximize that value by moving to sixty minutes. They're getting more time.

They're getting more flexibility on how they they do it. You could have two round trips. You can't do that today.

You can't have you can

have one round trip and then you're stuck on the second leg. And so this really helps adapt to folks' daily lives. If they have different types of trips, they can they can make those. So combination of talking to community and talking to peer cities.

So who did you talk

to a community other than Denver Street partnership? Did you actually reach out to people in the Lyme access who use it and ask them? Because data says a lot of things, but people I've I've learned you can skew data however you want. Anyone can. Yeah. So did you actually have a community forum and, like, bring in the people who are actually using Lime access? Because these are their dollars. Right? That everyone in this room pays our salary. Everyone in this room pays for the contract for this.

So what kind of exact community outreach did you do to the people who use Lyme access and have been coming to public comment? You've been having people come to public comment for a couple months now. Have you specifically reached out to anyone who has Lyme access and asked them if this is work would work for them?

Yeah. Couple of couple of points. Been listening to all the public comment made. Denver Street partnership through that grant did focus groups where they've had Lyme access writers, particularly on house writers, and and asked them what was working in the program. They have a

We have access to that.

Yeah. I'm happy to share that report that they're

Have we

written seen that report prior to today or anything?

They've published it and and sent it out, I believe, but we're happy to reshare that. It's a lot of great insights in it. We also did our community survey where folks were able to indicate that they were part of the Lyme access program, and we evaluated their responses and pulled those out to understand what the the difference was.

Do we have access to those surveys? Yep.

We have them.

Share those. Happy to share those. Yeah.

Okay. But we haven't had them

We sent the summary level, but if we wanna get into the the some of the details on the access writers, we can share that as well.

Okay. And then when during my briefing, I've asked for so I've read a lot of the reports, like, on national best practice. I can't remember what it's called, the organization that does all of the mobility. I know, like, architecture, AIA, I know that, but it's a similar and I've read three of the reports that you all have referenced. None of the reports so when I've researched those reports and read them and had conversations, yes, some of the reports say to go to a one vendor.

100%. It does say that in the report. With the understanding that the city is going to take over that program. That's what the report says. So it's a fallacy to say that the report reports out on that it should be a one vendor program because I've read the reports numerous times. So with the backing of that, when I met with Dottie, you all said that it was all based on this report and the report recommendation of going to a one vendor system. Are we going to eventually with roll out of one vendor, is it our intention in a couple years to take it on for and and we don't partner with anyone, it actually becomes our program?

I I think so. NACTO, National Association of City Transportation Officials, does a lot of great work around micro mobility. They have a lot of great forums. They put out a lot of great reports. I think that's what we're we're talking about here.

This does you know, something like b cycle was run by a nonprofit and had city subsidies as well. And so this moving to a single operator, you know, puts us a little bit closer to that option. I don't think we have any explicit intention of municipalizing the the program, but it does give us more control over the program, gives us more accountability over the program by moving to a single operator. Been talking exclusively with the the NACTO folks on their forums, all their peer cities, as well as of Bike Share, the National Bike Share Association as well about their what they see the market doing. So very feel very confident that this is the direction that a lot of cities are are moving.

And I think that's part of the reason we're doing a shorter contract here. You've you've been obviously you were five years ago. I had less gray in my face, but but went through this same process on there. And just the amount of evolution that has taken place between when they first came out to that period to today is tremendous on there, and it's still a very relatively new market. I mean, the older companies are seven years old on there, and I I think this gives us the ability to continue to move forward with this program, but also look at what kind of options are there like on this.

So while there's no immediate intent or immediate plans to municipalize, I think this gives us a very good option and flexibility to see within three years, hey, is this something that the city should take on and move forward or should we continue on and see how these contracting process goes?

Yeah. Just make I don't have a question, but I have a comment. So in that same NACDA report, I find it interesting that everywhere in that report it talks how important the scoring is, and we've never seen the scoring. So when I asked for the scoring, you specifically said that we can't see it at city council, and that's contrary to that NACTO report. Every single NACTO report I read, key, like number two, is that you see the scoring and that the scoring is transparent.

And so I don't I feel very uncomfortable that we are using this NACTO report, a, you want to say that we're coming to a one vendor system when we're not ready to mean the supplies. And two, that everywhere in that report, it says you have to see the scoring. Like, it really does. It says number one, number two item is the scoring. And so I need to see the scoring and I need to see the contract because even though you said you saw the scope of work, with all due respect, I've written scope of work in my office and it doesn't always get down into the detail.

I don't vote on a scope of work. I vote on a contract and I need to see the contract and I wanna see the scoring because according to the reports that you all are telling me to read that I've taken the time to read, that's what they say ask for and so then when I read the reports that you all asked me to read and then I ask you for the information that the reports asked me to ask you for and you tell me I can't have access to it, it feels frustrating. I just wanna say that's very frustrating to subvert because I took the time to read the reports that you all referenced numerous times. So please give me the scoring, and please get me the contract because I don't vote on a scope of work. Thank you, madam chair.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate you taking the time. The next speaker we have is council pro tem Romero Campbell followed by councilman Cashman.

Thank you, madam chair. I have a question as well on the equity program, And I wasn't able to see this in the contract, but the total number of devices that will be available on day one. And then is there a priority process or a prioritization for the access program?

So we are at 9,000 devices. That's essentially what the cap is today. That doesn't mean there'll be 9,000 devices out there on day one, but they'll be capped at 9,000 devices. The the priority for the access program is number one. The priority on all the access transitions is number one, that's the folks that we're gonna be really concentrating on to transition over to the new program from Lyme and Bird access to VO access, making sure that devices are deployed into those equity areas. That's the first thing we're gonna be keeping track of with this transition. Did I did I answer your question there?

Yeah. Guess it's like question one and then a, how many devices do we currently have on the street? How many will be on the street on day one? And when do you expect?

Today I checked, there's about 7,000 devices on the street today. When VO starts off, they'll have that half month period from May 1 to May 16 to ramp up, and they'll be at that 6,000 to 7,000 vehicle devices by the May. We'll be keeping close track of that. We have great data that comes in to help us understand where their deployments are at.

Thank you. And then my second question is very specific to some issues that we've had with Lyme in the past and that Lyme did address, but it had to be brought to their attention as far as I have a portion of unincorporated Arapahoe County in the middle of my district, and there are areas where I border other municipalities and it kind of fingers in or has different areas into District 4. Have you thought through that accessibility? So if somebody's on Yale, and they go two blocks through Holly Hills or four blocks up Yale into going through Holly Hills, will they still be able to make that access while they're on a bike or a scooter?

Yeah. I think we talked about the Walmart specifically out there on Hampden in the past as well. Yeah. Overall, we've been we our agreement and our VO's contract is with Denver, and so they're able to operate here in Denver. We've worked really closely with Doctor. Cog. They have been really key partners this program in helping us understand the regionality of it. We we kind of, frankly, lead the way among our our adjacent cities. And so, I think VO would would be more than happy to operate in, our peer cities, but they that that does rely on the the adjacent municipality to have a operating contract or a memo of understanding. We've had success with Aurora in doing some of these, you know, one off spots, and it's something we would look to continue in the future.

But overall, would say doctor Cog has been really helping us lead the way on those cross border conversations because folks don't know that this this side's Denver and this side's unincorporated, and so we wanna make it, as smooth for them as possible. So definitely a continued conversation, and we wanna make sure that, nobody's device doesn't work where they don't think it will.

Okay. Because I think where I have or where in Southeast Denver, I would say would be my high equity access areas, those are areas that border Aurora, unincorporated Arapahoe County, and Greenwood Village. And so it would be really important, again, for people on day one not to be riding along and stop because they've crossed some invisible border that they can't see.

Bro Tam, I would just and I don't ever know where to look here on the screen on there. I would just say, yeah, we're absolutely committed because that is those enclaves are a very unique situation on there, and we're certainly committed through our work our existing work with doctor Cogut to work with those communities and just, you know, we have a lot of power with the geo fencing. This wouldn't mean that now you've opened the door and they can go throughout any part of Arapahoe County, but I'm confident we could work something out that that well, I'm not I am committed. I'm confident we will work with them to try to make sure that, yeah, you can ride through those enclaves without running out and you just have a stack of scooters there at the border.

And my request would be if we could have a measurable timelines for when those contracts would be in place and then what the transition process calendar looks like for access on day one, quarter one, quarter two, to make sure that people have access to the program. Great.

Thank you. Your questions. Really appreciate you, Pro Tem. We have councilman Cashin followed by councilman Watson.

Thank you, committee chair. Did our previous vendors, Bergliff Lime, did they were they cited for violations of their contract?

We've certainly we've certainly provided warnings and done a couple of formal notices of of warnings. Yeah. Yeah.

And I will No no fines, no real enforcement? Not under justice. Lousy job.

And I will say, and this is why they made me come, as the person who wrote the contract five years ago, I don't think we had the proper tools in there to to do that. I think service level agreement that you see in here was designed with that experience in mind on there to make sure that these are are are not just clear but enforceable on there.

And let let me back that up. Sure. By lousy job, what I mean, they obviously did a good job Yes. Building a large access program, millions Absolutely. Of rides and and all that. But as far as promises that were made when those contracts were signed about keeping scooters in corrals and so on and so forth. That I do not think they did a good job at at all. Is there a policy I certainly don't want scooters on sidewalks, but I more than that, I really don't want them in traffic lanes on Colorado Boulevard, which I'm seeing more and more frequently. Is that against the law?

The law is written as such, and this was another fun experience I gotta have when this started on there. If you can ride a bicycle, you can ride a scooter on there. If you can't ride a bicycle, you can't ride a scooter. So technically, it's because you can ride a bicycle on Colorado, you could utilize a scooter on Colorado. I don't advise it.

Yeah. I think we might wanna take a look at that Absolutely. A ordinance standpoint.

Okay. Go ahead. Double.

In the future, excuse me if I missed this, I think we should own the data for the access program. So what is the how does that move forward?

So in the in the contract, we're making that more clear on how that data handoff looks like, lessons learned from the past contract. I think we're excited to we have really good data on the trip, but not on the user. And I think there's lots of privacy concerns about having data on, you know, low income users that we have to be very careful from. But we have great data on the where they're the trips that are happening. I think this is a place that we've definitely thought a lot about and a place where we wanna move a little bit more into owning that data and being able to be the ones to control it, that it's Dottie's access program, that we have operators who who provide that program, but it's it's ours at the end of the day.

Nathan said it. The personally identifiable information is something we gosh gosh. We shouldn't have that. That is always a risk for privacy on there. I think we've learned from that that is a worthy risk to ensure that these types of programs, no matter who is running the pro who's the

contractor on there, that continues. I'm not clear. Do we if if Feo doesn't do what they say Yep. Or for any reason Yes. We decide to go to another vendor, do we get their access program list? In this new contract, yes. Thank you very much. Thank you, madam chair.

Councilman Watson.

Thank you, committee chair. And Nathan, can you spell out what doctor Cog is?

Doctor Cog is the Denver Regional Council of Governments. It's one of the acronyms of our our community. That's one of

my questions. Just wanted to make sure. I think I've heard many times. First thing, we didn't speak a lot of on adaptive adaptability. Can we speak a little bit to your program for folks with different abilities and adaptability? What are you providing and compare that to existing programs?

Yeah. I think the place to start is with the diverse array of vehicles that VIO is able to provide where you have more seated devices for folks with mobility challenges or balance challenges. And then the trike itself really is that that next step of accessible vehicles. You know, I think I'll I'll let Vio speak here, but the idea here is if you design something for folks with disabilities, it's gonna work better for everyone. And so I think this is a place where Vio really stands out.

Yeah. I'll try to keep it brief. On the the fully deployed vehicles, the vehicles you'll see every day when you walk out and look at a corral, that has the two seater Apollo, which was an e bike, which was actually developed as part of an initiative with the mayor's office of people with disabilities in New York to make sure that folks with vision impairments or might be blind can participate in the program by being a passenger. That's one way we look at it. The self balancing trike was the other way for folks that have additional mobility impairments and wanting to make sure that it's as accessible a program as possible.

But I do want to address the comment that was made earlier and underline that a delivery of a electric wheelchair adaptive device is part of our offer and does exist in other cities as well and will still be available. So we look forward to dropping off a vehicle at your home as needed and that vehicle is yours to use for free for and I think in our system is five days.

And if I could just add, I think Alex touched on it. The trikes will be deployed as a course of business, not on an as on demand basis.

So I think we're trying to have the best of both worlds where you can call and get a device brought to you for your special mobility needs and they'll be part of the free floating fleet. I think the the ordinance says at least 5% have to be adaptive devices. I think depending on how you measure it, we would say 70% are gonna be adaptive.

And they're all by Veel, not another carrier. Correct. The the all also the other piece that we didn't hear a lot about was you're building your own devices. I mean, have a clarity on that. You have possibly 7,000 that you're gonna roll out. Where is your warehouse? What's the proximity? What's your process for ensuring that that service model is sustainable? I believe the current vendors contract out for broken vehicles and stuff, it's not owned by them, if you could validate that. But I need to understand from Vio your production for vehicles and what what that looks like.

Yeah. So VO is, you know, we we view this transition as too big to fumble and so that means upfront investment. We already have we already have access and ownership of a warehouse that is just above Regis University and what is technically unincorporated at Adams County, excuse me, but was, you know, measured to have a fifteen minute drive in most times to the core of our our area. It's 14,000 square foot warehouse that's equipped to deal with all repairs in house, all battery charging under professional supervision for the full 9,000 vehicle fleet. The first six or 7,000 of those vehicles are already being being being reassembled, you know, assembled after manufacture on-site and will be ready to go.

And the the additional two or 3,000 are in our central warehouse, which is located in Los Angeles and shipping to that warehouse once the first batch are neatly lined up and out of the way from from assembly. So located as close to the city, our market, and also to equity areas and areas where we wanna make sure people get quick touches and quick rebalances as possible and fully ready to go and staffed. Our vehicles are outside. That includes an operations manager who is hiring local roles actively. We have 27 positions already hired and working out of that warehouse.

Thank you, mister.

Thank you. And I have two questions, and then we'll have some committee discussion. So in the meeting that we had with you all as well as, you, Alice, I asked about the timeline for standing up the access program, and I received the answer that made me feel like the timeline was a little bit in flux. And, specifically, there was no clarity around the self attestation program for folks to sign up for the access program. And so I wanna know if there's been clarification on that timeline since we spoke on 02/27. It's just a yes or no. And if yes, can you just provide it to us in writing?

Yes. Happy to provide it

in writing.

We have that locked in.

Okay. And then the second question I have for you is if you call if you all can talk to me for this contract, what is the cost to what is the cost to the city to operate this service, and what would it look like to allow the two other operators license to manage the access program for a period of time, and what's the harm in doing so?

I think the cost of the city to operate the program is is staff time is the the main cost from the from the general fund. So I think that's what's different here is that we're applying staff time, but we're also receiving, through a financial model, millions from from VO as well. Could you repeat the second part of your question?

Yeah. So it it's the what's the harm in. So if we were to allow the two operators operators to continue in order to be able to safeguard Absolutely. Yeah. The access program, what's the harm in doing so?

Yes. So extending the existing contracts, I think we're our biggest concern a couple of concerns. First is just confusion for riders about what's happening. I think that is a a place we wanna be very clear to folks on what's happening. We believe that that, you know, we've had five months that we're starting out and then we'll have two weeks or excuse me, over over two weeks of overlap time that we feel is is confident.

It's gonna you know, having an extended overlap period is really gonna degrade the quality of the service that our new provider is gonna be able to provide because they the contract is written in a way that they're not having to compete over market share and share the market, and so they're not gonna be able to deliver what's based in the contract to to to Debright. So I think it's a combination of it. We wanna make it as clear as possible for folks that this transition is happening. The we don't see that there's additional benefit by having that overlap time. People are gonna continue to use their habits if we extend that. And so we wanna make sure that it's very clear this is the the date that the transition happens. You'll see a wind down of the existing operators' devices as you see a wind up of VO devices, and then they'll be able to scan on the spot and ride for free. So I think it's a combination of those things that gives us a little bit of concern about extending the existing contracts.

Okay. Thank you. I'd add is undermining the city's competitive procurement process. We don't want to allow bidders who were not top proposals to take away from the opportunity of the winning proposal to provide the benefits that we feel are better for users.

So I appreciate that response. And also, I'm not thinking about the the vendors. I'm thinking about the people who have actually been in counsel on multiple occasions who have talked about their concerns and being able to access the things that are important to them in their lives. And so that's really where I center my focus. As the chair of this committee and and other committees, what we are responsible for is making sure that this is ready to go to the floor.

And based on the conversations that we've had and the questions that have or have not been answered and the data that has or has not been provided, I don't feel confident that this is ready to go to the floor. I'm happy to hear from my other colleagues, but I would suggest that we post postpone this to a date certain to make sure this is ready to go to the floor for our colleagues and that we are making sure that we are taking care of folks in in moving this to our council colleagues. Can you say that one more time what you just said?

We feel that by extending or amending the current contracts, it undermines the city's procurement process by telling our current operators that they have an alternative path to stay in the market rather than compete through the city's process that

we went through. I'm not mean to laugh. I'm just do you know how many times we amend the contract here at council and extend contracts? I think we extended so many contracts with, like is that a stance of body? Because that sure is not the stance of host. I don't know how many times I extend extended the Volunteers of America contract. So I would just be really careful when we say that because you're talking to a body that extends contracts all the time. Like, honestly, I just wanna be transparent at that. That's why I had you say it again because I was like, is that really what I'm hearing?

I I think the difference here is that we have gone through a procurement process and we have a new vendor coming in, and so this extending the contract would it was not part of our procurement process.

And I think, ultimately, we're confident that a smoother experience for the access rider is to not kind of have a blurry transition from from three from two to maybe three to maybe one on that to do it. And this is, you know, not just based on our experience over the five years. It's based on our experience from transitioning to what was referenced as seven before to two now.

And overall, it's gonna the benefits the all the great benefits that we're getting out of this contract are gonna be not provided to folks because of this overlap. VO's not gonna be able to deliver on all of this with an extended timeline because they're that's not what their contract was for. It's for a single market. I think overall, where the the best transition piece that we're really excited for is our our current operators have shown that they can do targeted communications to riders in Denver to tell them about updates like this council meeting. And so we've asked them to continue to provide targeted updates to Denver riders in app notifications and emails and let them know about this transition and let them have the link to sign up for for VO access. And I think that is the best thing that could that could be done to help move this transition and let people know and make sure that communications are

clear. Great.

Well, I do appreciate it. I go ahead, councilman.

Hi. Thank you, committee chair. One thing that I would say to that, because I actually had that in in my talking points, but should there's still time for them to do that. And should VO not succeed, it would make me feel far more comfortable if we had a vendor that works within city rules and decisions as a back up. And so when I see a vendor or multiple vendors exerting a lot of energy trying to go around the city processes, do we really want them to continue as a vendor? It that's my thought. Thank you.

And quick quick point to that as well. And councilwoman Hines and I spent a good amount of time creating the legislation from which this RFP was developed from, and we did this because and I've said this already to Lyme and to Amber directly in the multiple briefings that I've had. Their delivery of what we asked for when they first came here was not and did not meet the requirements of what the city has asked for. They began to start meeting those requirements once they saw the legislation and once their RFP was was coming forward. So I I wanna be clear.

There have been some changes and some upgrades from our current providers, but that did not come without a lot of push and for us as council members creating legislation that pushed them towards that. And so my thoughts for this vendor process, this RFP process, it went through the steps that we helped to create through a a a very intense community informed process. And so my 2¢, I'm not on this committee. I won't have a vote. I believe the process works based on our legislation and based on the RFP that came out from that process.

And the RFP did did and you all can correct me if I'm incorrect. The RFP permitted the selection of other vendors because the intention wasn't just to have a sole provider. And so when we're talking about the figuring out how to make sure that that the folks who are in the access program do so with continuity, you could it's a both and, and you can do it in the context of what the RFP permitted.

The RFP said we could select up to two vendors. That's what the prior RFP said as well. We selected one. And so I think the award was for one, and I don't think we can yeah.

And we we had put the number in there to see based on the proposal, and there were specific sections about here's the benefit of here's what we could offer if we were one of two. Here's what we could offer if we're one of one. And ultimately, based on that process, it was very clear that providing the selecting a single operator was the most beneficial to the city.

I I guess I would be interested in what the opinion of the attorneys is as if it if it would bar the possibility of two versus one. Like, I understand that you all selected one, but the way that it was written is that was permitted to be able to allow for the selection of other vendors, and I would have to speak with an attorney to know if they would agree that.

Sure. I will absolutely say knowing this and knowing how high profile this was, we absolutely wrote that RFP in that section in specific very side by side with our attorney who I did see here at one point on there may not still be on there. Just left, of course. But we are very confident that, yes, there is nothing that that required us to select two, that we were well within legal rights to just simply select one.

Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. Alright. With that, again, I I told you I don't think this is ready to go. But can

I ask a question? When can we get the contract? Because if we can't get the contract like, agree, council member Watson, your guys your legislation added all this. I've been asking for the scoring in the contract. And so if we can't see the contract, I would like to postpone this so that I can read the contract because, again, I don't vote on the on the

Scope of Scope

of work. Sorry. And that's what we've been provided and it's the same that happened that with the Axon contract. Like the devils are in it. That's what we vote on. Correct. So if we can't if we're not having that today, I would like to postpone to April 1 so that I can have time to read that. That's what we just did last week with the the Axon contract. And that's why council member Flynn and I are bringing a ordinance that was in committee yesterday that will not have this happen anymore that we can't get contracts because you can't ask this body to vote on things that we don't read. I just can't do it anymore. I'm tired of doing it. It's been too long.

And I I definitely hear your concern. And obviously, as you said, we've got pending legislation that will change that process. I know there's a lot of complexities, but a citywide process around there on when that shot clock starts on there. Saying all of that, yes, I am committed. We'll get you the contract this week.

Legislation is not pending. The enforcement date or the active date is coming up. Legislation was passed

a year ago. Not legislation. I meant license. The license agreement.

Sir, can I make a motion to postpone to April 1 so we can get the contract and read it? I don't have to I can just read the contract. I would really just ask the committee. Just wanna read contracts. It's my job. Yes.

We have a motion on floor. Happy to second. Do you need a roll call vote?

I'm not on committee.

Can we do a roll call vote, madam secretary?

Council members, Alvitres.

Aye.

Flynn. Aye. Heinz. Aye. Cashman. Aye. Sandoval.

Aye.

Madam chair Lewis? Aye. Six ayes. And we will postpone that to a date certain August Skip up. April 1. Skip up both. Thank you. Thank you. I would need another motion on the floor for the item that we had, crosswind Heinz.

Yes. I'd like to postpone the suite of phone call contracts that were an action item today until a date of April 15.

Thank you. Next date. May I a

second? Second.

Do we need a roll call vote? No. Alright. Thank you. We have eight items on consent. No one has pulled anything off. And with that, we her. Thank you for your time, y'all.