Attachment B - Lime and Spin Letter

City of Phoenix — Transportation, Infrastructure, and Planning Subcommittee (2023-09-20)

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Marielle Brown
June 2, 2023
Active Transportation Principal Planner
City of Phoenix Street Transportation Department
200 W. Washington Street
Phoenix, AZ 85003
Delivered via Email
Re: Requested Program Improvements to Increase Ridership
Dear Ms. Brown,
On behalf of Spin and Lime, we appreciate your time and attention in reviewing this letter. We
are proud of our shared history of successfully operating in the City of Phoenix since the
inception of the program, and for recently being re-selected as the two highest performing
mobility operators. Over the last six months, we have unfortunately experienced persistently low
ridership of both our e-bikes and e-scooters compared to previous historical levels. We have
carefully evaluated the potential underlying reasons for such weak performance, as these trends
ultimately threaten the ongoing viability of the program despite our best efforts.
Looking ahead, we would like to share a number of practical program improvements with your
team to drive higher ridership and public usage of our mobility options. These requested policy
changes would, in turn, also generate additional revenue for the City per our revenue share
agreement. We look forward to implementing a number of win-win solutions that benefit the
entire City of Phoenix and meaningfully strengthen our public-private partnership going forward.
I.
Current Ridership Levels
For the purposes of transparency, it’s important we share our unexpectedly low ridership levels
over the course of 2023 to date. As indicated in the table below, we have experienced an
average utilization rate of approximately 0.5 trips per device/day on e-scooters and 0.1 trips per
device/day on e-bikes from March 1 to May 31, 2023. This represents an estimated 40%+
reduction in average daily ridership when compared to the same time period in 2022.
Performance Metrics
Spin
Lime
E-Bike Utilization
0.1 trips per device/day
0.25 trips per device/day
E-scooter Utilization
0.51 trips per device/day
0.86 trips per device/day
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Attachment B
Lime and Spin Letter

II.
Program Improvement Proposal
To immediately expand access to our mobility options and encourage greater public usage, we
propose the following policy adjustments in the table below for your consideration.
Policy Change
Details
Effective Date
Revised E-bike Minimum
Deployment Levels Based
on Utilization Rates
With persistently low ridership of our
e-bikes, we would like to request a revised
approach to minimum deployment levels.
We recommend applying a 5% minimum
e-bike fleet deployment level, which is
more appropriate given current demand.
As ridership gradually improves, we would
scale up our deployments of e-bikes as a
percentage of our fleet based on the
following utilization rate criteria:
●
UR > 0.5 = min. 10% of the fleet
●
UR > 1 = min. 15% of the fleet
●
UR > 1.25 = min. 20% of the fleet
June 15, 2023
Adjust Equity Zone
Deployments Based on
Utilization Rates
Over the last three months, the utilization
rate of our e-bikes and e-scooters in equity
zones has been unsustainably low (est. .12
for e-bikes, .26 for e-scooters). To this end,
we propose to increase the automatic
low-income fare discount to 30% off as a
proven method of encouraging higher
ridership and making our service more
inclusive of the entire community. At the
same time, we also recommend adjusting
the minimum deployment level in equity
areas to 15% of our deployed fleet to better
reflect current demand levels. This will
enable us to locate our devices in areas
where they are in the greatest demand and
to improve the viability of the program.
July 1, 2023
24 Hour Operations
We would like to request an immediate
change to 24/7 hours of operations in
order to improve access to our mobility
options when other forms of
July 1, 2023
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transportation may be either unavailable or
inaccessible. In many cities, we see
significant ridership in the late evening and
early morning hours, a clear indication of
demand for our service.
We are committed to strengthening our partnership with the City to provide all residents and
visitors of Phoenix with a safe, affordable, and sustainable mobility alternative to cars. We
appreciate the opportunity to share our feedback on the current state of the shared mobility
program, and we are available to answer any questions or discuss these issues in more detail.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Derek Stehlin
Charlie Mastoloni
Government Partnerships, West
Senior Manager of Government Relations
Spin
Lime
Brit Moller
Head of Public Policy
Spin
CC:
Kini L.E. Knudson, Director, Street Transportation
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