Syracuse lawmakers used a meeting over the potential renewal of a contract that brought e-bikes and e-scooters to Syracuse to air concerns about the bikes and scooters.Most of the seven councilors who attended a Tuesday meeting about the contract appeared to support them, but Councilor Marty Nave pushed back heavily against their utility and safety. Nave represents Syracuse’s North Side. Representatives of the company that manages the bikes and scooters, Veo, and the representatives from the mayoral administration pushed back against Nave during and after the meeting. “99.999% of our rides end without incident. I’m extremely encouraged and happy with our safety record,” Paul Colabufo, Veo operations manager for Syracuse, said in an interview after the meeting.The city first brought the bikes and scooters to Syracuse about three years ago. Councilors declined to vote on whether to renew the contract with Veo during a Monday council meeting, saying they needed to have a committee meeting about the contract. They held that meeting Tuesday in the council’s chambers at City Hall. It’s unclear whether a vote will happen at the next council meeting, Sept. 30. Nave argued he’d like for the council to hold a public hearing. Councilor Amir Gethers, chair of the Department of Public Works and Transportation committee, which held Tuesday’s meeting, said no public hearing is planned. If the council votes to renew the contract, it would last another three years. There have been more than one million Veo rides since the scooters and bikes came to Syracuse in 2021, said Veo policy and partnerships manager Joe Bott. Annual user surveys found the majority of riders took Veo vehicles to work, school or appointments, he said. During Tuesday’s committee meeting, many of the councilors expressed support for having the scooters and bikes but suggested ways to improve their use. “Today’s conversation is really acknowledging the successes of Veo, but also some of the challenges, and then building on that success,” said the city’s Chief Operations Officer Corey Driscoll Dunham.Councilor Corey Williams, who represents the city’s East Side, said he’s used the Veo scooters and believes the city needs to do more to integrate them into the city’s infrastructure. Not enough has been done to improve bike or pedestrian infrastructure throughout the city, Williams said during the meeting. “There’s no easy way to get from the East Side downtown without risking your life,” he said. Dunham acknowledged Williams’ critique and said the city could be doing more to install bike lanes and improve bike infrastructure.Other councilors had other suggestions for the city and Veo. They recommended doing safety outreach to people who ride the vehicles to make sure they wear helmets while riding them. Driscoll Dunham said that dovetails with the city’s goals. The Veo representatives said they were willing to perform educational outreach in Syracuse City schools.Councilors also relayed community concerns about Veo vehicles cluttering sidewalks, bike lanes and streets. Only 3% to 5% of Veo vehicles sit idle for more than 48 hours, according to Driscoll Dunham.Currently, four Veo vans patrol the city looking for idle bikes, but they leave them for 72 hours before moving them. Councilors, city officials and Veo believe more vans are necessary to pick up idling Veo vehicles faster.While most of the councilors provided constructive feedback for Veo and the city, Nave argued vehemently against the scooters and bikes. He argued multiple times that Veo scooters are not safe because they don’t have seatbelts, rearview mirrors and helmets. Nave invoked the death of Qian Adams, who was hit and killed by a Syracuse Police Department patrol car being driven by officer Christopher Cramer.“Man dies after Syracuse police car crashed into Veo bike, now the family’s suing Syracuse police,” Nave said. “They are not safe.” It is still unclear who caused that crash. The New York State Attorney General’s Office has been investigating the Dec. 2023 crash and has not yet released a finding in the investigation. Syracuse police officials did not respond to a request for comment about the crash. Syracuse police have struggled to curtail officer crashes in department vehicles over the last 10 years. In an interview after the meeting, Colabufo said neither the scooter nor the man riding it were responsible for the 2023 crash. Colabufo said speed is typically a factor in crashes and Veo’s scooters and bikes only top out at about 15 miles per hour. “There’s one fatality that happened because a car was going very fast and slammed into our scooter,” Colabufo said. “The scooter was driving responsibly, and the scooter was fully functional with lights and everything it needed.”The post Syracuse lawmakers debate renewing contract for Veo bike and scooter sharing program appeared first on Central Current.