"Safety needs to be number one," said Mae Lynn Mullen, a Columbia City resident who is deaf and has visual impairment. "It's come to a point where [multiple] scooters or bikes are turned over at a four-way intersection, and people are just walking over them and around them. I don't accept that. We can do better," said Mullen, signing briskly, about how dangerous it is for her to move about with lax enforcement of improperly parked shared electric vehicles. "People with baby strollers can't get through. It impacts wheelchair users, seniors, and Deafblind people," she said through an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter.
Mullen's partner, Roger Poulin, who's both deaf and blind and an avid distance walker, described encountering improperly parked Lime electric vehicles around Columbia City, including at an intersection to the neighborhood's light rail station, along South Edmunds Street near PCC, and along the trail through Columbia Park. Poulin said he's been reporting each case he comes across and moving the bikes out of the way for years, "but I'm not seeing any change. I feel like they don't care, and it's frustrating," Poulin said through an interpreter. "I just want to toss the bikes," Poulin said, as he thrust his arms forward.
Poulin and Mullen often frequent neighborhood food haunts. They're among dozens of Deafblind and blind community members who live in, work, or commute through Southeast Seattle to access service hubs, such as the Washington State Department of Services for the Blind (DSB) in Columbia City and The Lighthouse for the Blind in Mount Baker.
Lime's Seattle fleet of 15,000 electric vehicles are found in many neighborhoods, and they were used for 10.5 million trips last year. The vehicles can decrease dependence on car rides because they offer an alternative to short trips, including walking the last leg of a commute after a transit ride. Public complaints about them include the safety of using electric vehicles and improper parking.
The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) wrote in a statement that "Scooters and bikes should be parked upright in out‑of‑the‑way spots such as bike racks, bike corrals, or near trees and poles close to the curb. Riders need to always leave at least six feet of clear space for people walking." Additionally, SDOT noted "Micromobility should not be parked on sidewalks, at curb ramps, intersections, driveways, bus stops, City of Seattle parks, or in front of building entrances, benches, pay stations, fire hydrants, or waste bins." (Micromobility refers to the use of single-person transportation, such as bikes or scooters, to travel short distances.)
Parker Dawson, Lime's Senior Regional Lead of Government Relations for the Pacific Northwest, wrote in a statement, "Riders found to repeatedly mispark vehicles can face increasing penalties, including fines, suspension and, ultimately, expulsion from the Lime platform."
"Everyone in this community has a story about run-ins with micromobility," said David Miller, an orientation and mobility specialist for the Deafblind community who specializes in training Deafblind people on how to make use of public transportation.
Miller frequently receives requests from the Deafblind community to report misparked Lime e-bikes and e-scooters, since it's often cumbersome for this community to report it themselves. Miller uses the city's Find It, Fix It app. SDOT also has a hotline, 206-684-ROAD (7623) and email address.
According to a statement from Ethan Bergerson, SDOT press secretary, "Bad parking reported in the [city's] Find It, Fix it app is sent to Lime, and then Lime sends one of their workers to move the device." After that, "The city fines Lime and [Lime] pay[s] the City for every violation."
Last year, Lime paid the city $74,500 in fines related to parking obstructions and other compliance issues, separate from its $1.28 million operations permit costs. Bergerson wrote that the fees from Lime pay for "our bike and scooter share program operational costs including staff and building new corrals. A portion of the fees also supports Outdoors for All, which provides free adaptive cycle rentals for people with disabilities."
In one training session, Miller trained Charles Mendoza, a Deafblind retiree who was a machinist for 38 years. Mendoza practiced how to navigate light rail from Capitol Hill to the Kent Des Moines Station. "People who are sighted have no problem [with Lime vehicles]," Mendoza said through an interpreter, "but for us, it isn't safe because we encounter them and might fall." Mendoza and Poulin have both tripped and fallen because of improperly parked e-vehicles.
Kevin Southworth, who is Deafblind, used to have a career in IT before his vision deteriorated. He commutes to a manufacturing job in Southeast Seattle. He said he's fallen a couple of times because of micromobility devices. He recalled there were two e-bikes parked in a row, and he cleared one, not realizing there was another next to it. He tripped and landed on the vehicle, cutting his chin and mouth. "[Electric vehicles] need to be off to the side or in designated areas," he said through an interpreter, and rubbed his chin.
SDOT has marked corral spaces to park Lime vehicles in a number of areas with high micromobility use. But Alice Klein, DSB orientation and mobility specialist, noted, "A painted line on the sidewalk is not detectable by a cane, and so a person might be traveling, and they might inadvertently walk into a corral with a number of Lime vehicles in it." Klein and Miller attend the SDOT Pedestrian Access Advisory Committee meetings and have been advocating for micromobility corrals with tactile boundaries discernable by a cane. The City installed three of five planned corrals this month to test out the edges of tactile border pads in downtown Seattle. They passed Miller and Klein's standards, and the two are hopeful that more tactile-identifiable corral borders can be installed in high-density transit locations.
Miller said the Deafblind community uses tools to navigate where they are in their commute. They consider the directions of slopes as markers, as well as their cane and a complementary Miniguide, an electronic travel device that uses echolocation and vibrates differently depending on how close the user is to an object. Deafblind commuters count the number of stops on a light rail route. They check in with the bus driver using a card. Electric vehicles, cones used to caution people about a wet or slippery floor, skateboards, tents and other things are obstacles that can impact navigation.
"The margin of error is small," said Miller. "A wrong turn can take you on a path to the Eastside when you wanted to go to Capitol Hill, or can land you on the light rail platform going the opposite direction from where you wanted to go, in which case you would be totally lost."
Have something to say about Lime shared vehicles in the city? Take the current Seattle survey on Seattle's bike and scooter share program.
Need to report improperly parked shared electric vehicles?
SDOT Hotline: 206-684-ROAD (7623) or 684-Road@Seattle.gov
Lime: Support@Li.me
Got an idea for a South End story you'd like to see us cover? Let me know: Yuko.Kodama@SeattleEmerald.org.
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