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The city of San Diego is on the offensive in a lawsuit filed last year over the proliferation of electric scooters on public sidewalks.
City attorney Mara Elliott filed a lawsuit last week against Bird, Lyft, and a handful of other firms that have signed company agreements with the city to rent out “shared mobility devices” to consumers moving from place to place.
The lawsuit comes after disability rights attorneys sued the city in federal court for alleging the dockless scooters too often get in the way of pedestrians, clog public paths, and endanger people who use wheelchairs or are visually impaired.
“The class claims that drivers leave the dockless vehicles on sidewalks, sidewalks, curb ramps at intersections, entry and exit points in sidewalks, and other rights of way,” says Elliott’s lawsuit.
“The class also claims that drivers operate the shared mobility devices, especially electric scooters, on the sidewalks, creating a hazard to the public and preventing safe access and use by pedestrians,” she adds.
The federal class action lawsuit initially named the scooter companies as defendants, but a judge dismissed them from the lawsuit last year, leaving the city of San Diego as the sole defendant in that class action case.
According to the latest lawsuit from the city’s Superior Court, the operating agreements of the scooter companies Bird, Lyft, and other operators specifically require that they defend San Diego from any litigation related to the dockless scooters.
The city is asking a judge to enforce the provision in the company agreements that the companies indemnify the city from damage and pay the city’s costs to defend against lawsuits caused by the scooters.
“As a condition of the requested permits, the defendants and each of them agreed to identical compensation agreements that were part of the motions filed by each of the defendants,” wrote city lawyers.
In particular, the treaties exempt the city from any liability for “all claims, damages, losses, expenses, fines, penalties, judgments, claims and defense costs,” the agreements say.
A Lyft spokesman said the company has not commented on any pending litigation. Bird and other defendants did not immediately respond to requests to comment on the lawsuit. The city complaint also names Wheels Lab Inc., Skip Transport Inc., Skinny Labs Inc. and Neutron Holdings as co-defendants.
City lawyers said officials drafted and adopted specific rules and regulations for the use and operation of electric scooters as early as 2019.
But the companies have failed to respond to complaints from San Diego residents that scooters have been left by customers in areas that were not allowed under the agreements, the lawsuit said.
“So far, no defendant has agreed to defend and / or indemnify the plaintiff for the claims asserted in the underlying lawsuit from the business of the defendant,” the lawsuit says.
“Complaints and reports received by the plaintiff city about the Get It Done program have been forwarded to the defendants,” she added. “Defendants have not changed their operations and practices to address the foregoing issues and their acts and / or omissions continue to create potential liability risks for Plaintiff City.”
Electric scooters became popular as an alternative to driving a car about five years ago, particularly in the city center, on the beaches, and in other parts of the city.
Office workers, pedestrians, and commuters all relied on the devices to get from point A to point B for just a few dollars without worrying about parking or pre-booking. They are activated via mobile phone applications and billed directly to a credit card.
Others drove them along the promenade or through city parks for fun.
But the proliferation of scooters became problematic within months as customers left them scattered, sometimes by the dozen, on sidewalks, outside of office buildings, or near street corners.
In addition, many drivers refused to wear helmets and were injured in falls and collisions.
By 2019, more than 13,000 scooters were available for rent on the streets and avenues of San Diego, and the public began to demand regulations about their use. The new rules and company agreements were published in the same year.
Passenger numbers plummeted after Governor Gavin Newsom introduced mandatory home stays in March 2020 to combat the public health threat posed by COVID-19.
Last year, the number of scooters available for rent over 340 square miles across city fell to fewer than 100 – a decrease of more than 99 percent.
In the past few months, as the pandemic has weakened, the number of scooters has risen back to over 5,000.
The class action lawsuit against the city of San Diego is pending in the US District Court.
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