NAMPA, Idaho — For the past few years e-scooters have been zipping around downtown Boise and Meridian, but it's an idea the city of Nampa ultimately voted against at Monday night's city council meeting.
“Some of the people I talked to think it’s a great idea, help business bring revenue to our businesses to downtown,” said City Council member Jacob Bower.
Bower supported the e-scooter license agreement for a one-year contract with Bird Rides Inc., but he was outvoted 3 to 2. The motion was to deny the a license agreement with Bird Rides Inc, with Councilors Jean Mutchie, Randy Haverfield, and Darl Bruner voting in favor. Council member Sandi Levi abstained.
Brad Daniels, Administrative Captain with the Nampa Police Department said the department is not opposed to e-scooters but expressed concerns during the meeting.
“We just really have strong concerns about the layout of our downtown versus the other layout of other downtowns. It’s not okay for them to be on the sidewalk and if you’re not on the sidewalk you’re riding behind angle parking that requires vehicles to be pulled int to the curbline, which means everybody is backing up and it creates additional hazards,” Daniels said.
Daniels added the parking layout really is the main hang-up.
“With parallel parking versus angle parking we would probably be much more supportive,” he said. “For us. where this is our test zone it’s a very difficult location for that. We’re not formally objecting to it but those are concerns we see real issues for us and even some travelers.”
After the vote, Mayor Debbie Kling told a rep from Bird Rides that the final decision may not be the end of bringing e-scooters to the city.
“I don’t know that this is a no forever, I think it has to do where we are as a city to date. But we’ll look forward to possibly re-engaging you in the future ”she said.
You can watch the city council May 17 meeting here.
