What can we do to create a safer and more enjoyable experience for people traveling outside the confines of a car?

When Spin first started its policy initiatives team, they met with community and government partners across the country to understand how the e-scooter boom could bolster the conversation around creating streets for people, not cars – bringing it into the mainstream. What the team quickly realized is cities are all grappling with the same issue: The need for safe and reliable places to ride and the funds to build it. That’s why Spin’s Safe and Livable Streets initiative was born, an initiative to fund people-centric streets in partnership with the communities where Spin operates.

“We want to bring awareness to making streets better for all people,” said Kay Cheng, Director of Infrastructure Initiatives at Spin. “This is really a unique partnership, where a MaaS provider is working directly with community members, advocates, and policy leaders already active on these issues to provide the boost they need to reach their goals. We think these short-term projects have the potential to ignite long-lasting change ”

Block by block, Spin is investing in physical projects to help kick-start communities towards this goal. Working with Salt Lake City and Bike Utah’s 1,000 Miles campaign, Spin is funding a quick build pilot project to transform an intersection into a safer, slower multimodal street. This will be accomplished by bolstering a protected bike lanes with bulb outs, creating intersection treatments and scooter parking, which will be installed early next month by volunteers from within the community. In Denver, Spin in partnership with the City of Denver Department of Public Works, Denver Street Partnership, Downtown Denver Partnership and The Better Block Foundation, held the first parklet design competition focused on providing a place for scooter charging and storage in lieu of a car parking spot. Six winners will be installing their designs on National Park(ing) Day in Denver. And in South Florida, Spin plans to host a workshop with local leaders on how to utilize tactical urbanism.

Through events like a pop-up protected bike lane during an open streets event in San Francisco, Spin wants to demonstrate the benefits of protected infrastructure and create advocates, out of their own riders, for safer streets. “We want to get people thinking and making the connection between safe scooter behavior, like wearing a helmet, while opening their eyes to what it feels like to use safe and protected infrastructure,” Cheng said. “We see this as a natural extension of the high value Spin places on our business approach as a cooperator, not a disrupter.”

Spin has been a member of NABSA since 2017. Spin staff members will be speaking at the 2019 NABSA Conference on their partnership with Swiftmile to bring dock-based charging stations to cities where they operate, as well as their approach to rebalancing efforts. Click here to see all sessions at How We Move: Micromoblity, Macro Impact.