The top local stories this morning from KERA News: After a few months observing the market, the Plano City Council Monday passed an ordinance regulating bike-share companies.
The unanimous vote by the council allows the city to enact rules dictating where companies can place bikes, the number of bikes dropped in a certain location, and how quickly companies must pick them up.
The council acknowledged that rental bike companies have been quick to respond to complaints of bikes blocking certain areas, but residents don't always know who to call.
“If they call the bike company directly, they'll more likely get a quicker response than calling us,” City Manager Bruce Glasscock said. “The demand that is on [city] staff now are the emails and the calls coming in.”
Peter Braster, Plano’s director of special projects, said the new ordinance will address that issue.
"One of the things in the ordinance is to have an email address and a phone number on each bike, so that should make that self-reporting a little easier,” he said.
The Dallas City Council Monday was also briefed on possible ways to regulate bike-share companies.
In the last year, several bike-share companies have dispatched thousands of bikes in cities like Dallas, Irving, Denton and Plano. The station-less bikes can be locked and unlocked with a smartphone app, and don't require a docking station. They were initially praised as an alternative mode of transportation, but residents have since complained there are too many bikes blocking rights-of-way.
Other stories this morning:
- The Dallas Mavericks has hired a new CEO after last week’s report of sexual harassment in the front office.
- KERA’s Krys Boyd talked with the filmmaker behind the new Independent Lens documentary on historically black colleges and universities.
You can listen to North Texas stories weekdays at 8:22 a.m. and 6:20 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM.
