Scooter permit, impound fees add to Austin coffers

For all the grief scooters have brought some Austin residents — in the form of injuries, lawsuits or complaints — the devices helped the city pocket more than $750,000 in the last year, according to documents obtained by the American-Statesman.

The money, collected through permit application fees and fines levied on impounded dockless electric scooters and bikes, replenishes the city's parking enterprise fund, which pays for sidewalk fixes and cleanup, engineering work, downtown initiatives and parking enforcement, Transportation Department officials say.

Most of the money comes from permit application fees, which generated $723,090 between May 17, 2018, and March 29, according to a payment spreadsheet from the city's Transportation Department.

When a company applies to deploy devices in Austin, it pays $30 for each device, according to the application. The city holds onto that payment while the devices are inspected as part of the approval process, Transportation Department spokeswoman Mary Vo said. When a company is denied an operating permit, it gets its money back, she said.

Companies pay the same $30 per device when they increase the size of their fleets as well. The permit fee is paid every six months, according to the application.

The Austin City Council is set to vote next month on an ordinance that would clamp down on speed limits and allow Austin police to ticket riders they deem dangerous. Until then, the Transportation Department has paused issuing permits to companies.

Ten companies currently have permits to operate more than 13,400 scooters, according to city data. Three of those companies have not yet deployed devices.

Impound fees from standup scooters and e-bikes in violation of city rules generate a much smaller amount of revenue. Fees collected between April 1, 2018, and March 15 totaled $33,590, department invoices show.

Dockless scooters and bikes can be impounded when a company fails to respond to city officials about an issue or if the devices are left in a way that threatens safety, said Jason Redfern, a parking enterprise manager for the Transportation Department. If it's a quick fix, city staff will address it and notify the company of what's going on.

The company has one to two hours to attend to a problem, depending on the severity of the situation. If the problem isn't fixed in time, the city impounds the devices at a facility off Toomey Road near Lady Bird Lake. The company is notified of the seizure and how much it will cost to release the devices.

Companies Lime, Bird and Spin have been fined, as well as Zagster, which used to operate dockless bikes in Austin before leaving in the fall.

Fees, which depend on the number of devices impounded and how many people had a hand in locking them up, typically run about $100 per device, according to the invoices and Redfern.

"That's always the last resort. It's not a revenue stream for us," Redfern said. "We're simply looking to rectify issues and make the right of way safe."

The invoices provided to the Statesman do not go into detail about why the scooters or bikes were impounded, only saying that some were abandoned or broke rules for companies that operate in Austin. Transportation officials did not say what rules were broken.

The invoices do not list the complete number of scooters and bikes that have been impounded, because few details were recorded in the receipts when dockless vehicles first arrived in Austin last spring. Eventually, officials created a process of record-keeping that included the quantity of devices. At least 28 devices have been impounded.

Zagster incurred fees for its devices that were likely leftover and strewn about the city after the company stopped operating here, Redfern said. Two other companies also contributed to the revenue total but no longer operate in Austin.

In the 10 months of records reviewed by the Statesman, Bird paid the most impound fees, largely because the company was charged a whopping $29,290 in May when the devices were first cropping up because the scooters were toppling over in the wind and obstructing sidewalks.

It cost about $230 per impounded scooter, because the department had not figured out a process for impounding the devices. Now, three staff members are assigned to pick up abandoned property, Redfern said.

"That was when they first disrupted Austin, and we were trying to game-plan and figure out the best course of action. We basically threw almost all of our officers at it (in the beginning)," Redfern said.