Council OKs new fees, regulations for scooter-rental companies
The regulations, passed 19-6 by the council, pave the way for Lime and Bird to return scooters to Indianapolis after they receive permits and agree to new conditions and fees.
The regulations, passed 19-6 by the council, pave the way for Lime and Bird to return scooters to Indianapolis after they receive permits and agree to new conditions and fees.
An Indianapolis City-Council committee on Thursday evening voted to regulate businesses that rent out the dockless electric scooters that have caught on quickly since popping up around the city in the past two weeks.
City-County Council members are poised to put regulations on the motorized electric scooters that have been zipping around downtown over the past two weeks.
IndyGo is expected to back off plans to purchase electric buses this year to replace the mass-transit system’s older diesel fleet, saying electric-vehicle technology is not yet good enough to meet its needs.
City code enforcement officials sent the company a letter asking them to halt their service for 30 days while the city works out a regulatory scheme that would tackle dockless bike and scooter sharing.
The federal funding will cover most of the $96.3 million first phase of the Red Line, a proposed 13.1-mile bus route that will run between East 66th Street in Broad Ripple and the University of Indianapolis, with 28 stops along the way.
City leaders will collaborate with officials from 21 other major municipalities to share best practices with a focus on creating transportation hubs and reshaping the use of right-of-way and curb space.
State Sen. Jim Merritt, R-Indianapolis, declined to call up House Bill 1080, which he sponsored in the Senate, for amendments on Monday afternoon before the Senate’s deadline.
Lawmakers are reconsidering the ban with hopes of landing Amazon’s second North American headquarters.
A proposal to reverse the ban that has precluded Marion County and surrounding suburbs from building or acquiring a light-rail mass-transit project passed an Indiana House committee Wednesday.
The Indianapolis Public Transportation Corp. plans to add more night and weekend service on its two busiest routes, plus a handful of others, starting Feb. 11.
Construction is expected to begin early next year, with the route open for service in the summer of 2019.
A court battle is escalating between IndyGo and property owners along the proposed Red Line route fighting to protect their land from becoming part of the rapid-transit bus system.
The House’s $1 trillion federal spending bill, crafted over the weekend, includes $50 million for the Red Line. Project funding has been in limbo for more than a year.
Now that the Marion County transit tax has passed, IndyGo is assured of funding for the bus rapid-transit project.
The 17-8 vote will put into place an income tax increase that will raise at least $54.4 million annually to fund major improvements to the city’s bus service.
IndyGo says it needs to keep working toward a summer construction date so that the transit line is “shovel-ready” if and when federal grant funds are released.
The City-County Council committee vote came after Mayor Joe Hogsett’s top adviser urged members to say yes—the first time the mayor’s office had expressed an opinion publicly about whether the tax increase should pass.
Supporters of a proposal to raise income taxes to expand mass transit in Indianapolis have at least 11 of the 13 votes they need to implement the hike.
Federal inaction on a $75 million grant IndyGo is counting on to help fund a planned rapid-transit bus line is complicating a City-County Council decision about a transit tax increase.