Or, at least, that’s the case with electric scooters and bikes on the Veo platform. The company’s micromobility is in place in more than 50 cities and college campuses across the United States.
Veo has partnered with Captur, an artificial intelligence (AI) parking compliance tool, it announced recently. Starting this month, when riders complete their trips, they must take a photo of the parked vehicle — while still in the Veo app — to show it is properly parked. Captur’s AI technology checks for compliance with local regulations. The trip can only be ended when a device is properly parked.
Veo configures the local regulations within a dashboard specific to that city according to Candice Xie, the company’s CEO.
“We can set regulations to guide photo approval by zone, and each market can have multiple subzones depending on neighborhood context,” she said.
Using AI for real-time parking compliance could be a breakthrough development for ensuring the devices are parked correctly, and not left haphazardly cluttering sidewalks — or worse, blocking access ramps.
“Improperly parked vehicles can create challenges for people with visual impairments,” Betsy Borchardt, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, city planner in the community development and planning office, said via email. “They can also block people in wheelchairs, and make passing difficult for parents with strollers and delivery drivers.”
In Cedar Rapids, incorrectly parked scooters are subject to a warning or citation.
“If a rider’s last end-of-ride photo confirms incorrect parking, the rider will receive a message with details of how they incorrectly parked,” Borchardt said. “Riders would then receive one more warning, followed by a $5 fine and then a $10 fine if they continue to park incorrectly.”
Recent research from the Urbanism Next Center at the University of Oregon found one approach to ensuring scooters are parked correctly is to provide places for them to park, such as parking corrals.
“Having this physical space there helps to prevent people from parking, and also decluttering by getting scooters and stuff off the sidewalk,” said Gregory Matlesky, Washington, D.C., Department of Transportation bicycle program specialist, during an April 5 panel organized by the Urbanism Next Center.
Borchardt, in Cedar Rapids, stressed the need to find solutions to scooter parking issues, because the devices are a needed source of mobility for a number of residents and are part of a larger mission to diversify transportation options.
“These devices offer a way to commute, run errands or just ride for the fun of it,” she said. “Using these devices in lieu of a motorized vehicle reduces parking and traffic congestion, traffic noise, harmful emissions, and offers an alternative transportation option for those without a car.”
