[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of
the City of Lowell as indicated in article histories. Amendments noted
where applicable.]
[Adopted 9-22-1998 (§ 12-30 of the 1988 Code)]
No person shall use, and no parent or guardian of a minor shall knowingly permit a minor to use, any bicycle, skateboard, roller skates (in-line or other type) or roller blades on any public sidewalk or on any publicly or privately owned property on which signs have been posted prohibiting the use of such bicycles, skateboards, roller skates or roller blades as such streets or areas are listed in § 110-4 hereof.
[Amended 10-7-2014]
Any person who violates the provisions of this
article, and the parent or guardian of any minor charged with such
a violation, shall be given a written notice of violation for a first
offense. Willful violations of this article shall be subject to arrest
under the provisions of MGL c. 272, § 59, and the skateboard
and bicycle may be seized. Upon arrest and/or criminal complaint for
a second or subsequent offense of which any person, or parent or guardian
of a minor, is found guilty, the penalty shall be $50.
[Amended 10-7-2014]
Any person who violates the provisions of this article may be penalized by noncriminal disposition as provided under § 1-6 of the Code and MGL c. 40, § 21D, as amended. This article shall be enforced by a police officer of the City of Lowell who shall issue a notice to appear in court. The penalty for the first violation shall be $50, and any subsequent violation shall be $100.
A.
Sidewalks of the following listed streets and the
following named public plazas shall be posted prohibiting the use
thereon of bicycles, skateboards, roller skates (in-line or other
type) and roller blades:
(1)
Merrimack Street from Colburn Street to Kearney Square.
(2)
Kearney Square.
(3)
Merrimack Street from Kearney Square to Stackpole
Street.
(4)
Prescott Street.
(5)
Central Street from Merrimack Street to Church Street.
(6)
Church Street from Central Street to Concord River.
(7)
Green Street.
(8)
Hurd Street.
(9)
Warren Street.
(10)
George Street.
(11)
Middlesex Street from Central Street to Thorndike
Overpass.
(12)
Appleton Street from Central Street to Thorndike Overpass.
(13)
Jackson Street from Central Street to Marston Street.
(14)
Market Street from Cardinal O'Connell Parkway to Central
Street.
(15)
Worthen Street from Arcand Drive to Market Street.
(16)
Dutton Street from Market Street to Merrimack Street.
(17)
Arcand Drive.
(18)
River Place.
(19)
Father Morrissette Boulevard from Suffolk Street to
French Street.
(20)
French Street.
(21)
Kirk Street.
(22)
Lee Street.
(23)
Paige Street.
(24)
John Street.
(25)
Shattuck Street.
(26)
Palmer Street.
(27)
Middlesex Street.
B.
The sidewalk, steps and plaza area of the following
shall be posted prohibited areas:
C.
The sidewalk, steps, ramps and parking areas of the
following shall be posted prohibited areas:
[Adopted 8-28-2018]
A.
The City Council exercises regulatory control over public ways in
the City of Lowell. In this capacity, any private bicycle share (or
"bike share") service enterprise utilizing portions of the public
way, including Lowell and/or UMass Lowell property, for the purposes
of installing bike share docks, parking freestanding bike share inventory,
or otherwise operating a bike share service must be licensed by the
City of Lowell.
B.
Each license shall be valid for a one-year "pilot" program from the
date of issue in the interests of allowing operation of an emerging
business model, while also allowing the City to study the impact of
bike sharing on traffic, transportation, safety, economic development,
and other factors before determining the long-term value and appropriateness
of bike share services in Lowell. Bike share operator licenses shall
not be transferred without the consent of the licensing board.
As used in this article, the following terms shall have the
meanings indicated:
Authorization to operate a business providing bike share
rentals within the City of Lowell.
Any for-profit or nonprofit enterprise which provides unsupervised
bicycle rentals to individual consumers for short-term uses, including
commuting, tourism, recreation, and other point-to-point travel, utilizing
membership programs, mobile device applications, or unstaffed rental
equipment including docking stations.
Any bike share service which operates by providing access
to inventory at fixed dock locations where shared bicycles (and only
the operator's shared bicycles) are secured and may be accessed and
returned by users through appurtenant unstaffed pay stations or mobile
devices.
Any bike share service which operates by providing access
to inventory at any specifically permitted or otherwise authorized
public or private property location within the City of Lowell independent
of a dedicated dock station, including public ways and public and
private bicycle racks.
The City Council.
For the purposes outlined herein, any public street, sidewalk,
or path owned, controlled, or operated by the City of Lowell.
As a novel commercial enterprise utilizing the public way and
likely public areas for storage/access to its inventory, applicants
shall only be considered for a license following a competitive procurement
process consistent with the requirements of MGL c. 30B.
A.
Safety.
(1)
All bike share bicycles available for use in the City of Lowell shall
meet the consumer product safety standards set forth in United States
Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) under Title 16, Chapter II, Subchapter
C, Part 1512.
(2)
All bike share bicycles available for use shall also be equipped
to meet safety requirements set forth in MGL c. 85, § 11B,
including, but not limited to § 11B(7) — (10).
(4)
All operators shall provide proof of a mechanism or other satisfactory
means for customers to notify the company that there is a safety or
maintenance issue with a bike share bicycle.
(5)
All operators shall provide proof via a mobile device application,
visible notice on each available bicycle such as a decal, or other
satisfactory means that each consumer is notified that:
(6)
Freestanding bike share operators must also provide proof via mobile
device application, visible notice on each available bicycle such
as a decal, or other satisfactory means that each consumer is notified
that bicycles must not be stored or parked at the end of use in a
manner that obstructs pedestrian or vehicular traffic on the public
way or in any way inhibits access to public spaces.
(7)
Bike share operators shall demonstrate that they have an adequate
plan to ensure maintenance of bicycles, including, without limitation,
periodic checks of brakes, cables, and frames. Available bicycles
must also be outfitted with a working headlight and rear light.
A.
All permitted operators shall provide proof of and maintain insurance
in the following categories in the following amounts:
(1)
Worker's compensation insurance as required per MGL c. 149, § 34
and MGL c. 152, as amended.
(4)
The City of Lowell shall be listed as "additional insured," covering
each bicycle available for use, parked, or left standing or unattended
on any public way under the jurisdiction of the City of Lowell AND
each user using the bicycle during the period of use.
(5)
Prior to issuance of a license, all bike operators shall execute
an indemnification agreement to indemnify and holding harmless the
City of Lowell from any claims and/or litigation whatsoever arising
out of providing bike share bicycles for use and/or consumer use of
such bicycles.
A.
Dock-based bike share operator bicycles shall be stored and made
available for each new use only at approved dock stations.
(1)
Any dock installation on the public way or on public property requires
a separate annual permit for each location approved by the licensing
board.
(2)
The City's Department of Planning and Development and City Engineering
Department will consult applicants on feasible dock locations and
necessary terms, limitations, and conditions relevant to each.
(3)
The bike share operator shall take reasonable measures to monitor
bicycle usage to ensure that bicycles are returned to approved docking
stations for subsequent uses.
B.
Freestanding bike share operator bicycles shall be made available
for each new use in appropriate public areas and spaces, including
safe portions of public ways as outlined below, or upon private property
approved by the operator.
(1)
Freestanding bike share bicycles shall be parked in the part of the
sidewalk adjacent to the roadway curb (so long as an ADA-compliant
four feet of pedestrian clear zone is maintained), at a public bike
rack, or other locations expressly permitted by the City.
(2)
Freestanding bike shares utilizing bicycle racks shall take reasonable
measures to ensure that sufficient bicycle rack room is available
for non-bike-share, private bicycles in all approved public locations.
(3)
Freestanding bike share bicycles must be parked upright.
(4)
Freestanding bike share bicycles must be parked and stored in a manner
not disruptive to the use of the public way by pedestrians, other
cyclists, or motorists, including immediately adjacent to or within:
a loading zone, accessible parking zone or other facilities specifically
designated for handicap accessibility, a fire hydrant, curb ramp,
or an entryway, driveway, or parking lot.
(5)
The bike share operator shall take reasonable measures to monitor
bicycle usage to ensure that bicycles parked incorrectly or inoperable
are removed; also, any bicycle that is parked incorrectly or is inoperable
shall be reparked or removed by the vendor within 24 hours of receiving
notice, and the City shall have the right to remove bicycles that
are incorrectly parked if the bike share operator fails to respond
within 24 hours of notice, and to remove any incorrectly parked bicycles
posing a safety hazard immediately.
A.
Bike share operators shall have a twenty-four-hour customer service
phone number for customers to report safety concerns, complaints,
or ask questions. Twenty-four-hour customer service shall also be
available to address bicycle relocation for violations of the rules
and orders herein. Such twenty-four-hour customer service contact
information shall be reasonably accessible to both users and nonusers.
B.
Bike share operators shall also provide a direct contact for the
Department of Planning and Development for the purposes of facilitating
relocation of bike docks or freestanding individual bikes.
C.
Any inoperable bicycle or any bicycle that is not safe to operate shall be removed from the right-of-way within the time frame set forth in § 110-10B(5) above and shall be repaired before putting the bicycle into service.
D.
Bicycles parked in one location for more than seven consecutive days
without moving may be removed by the municipality at the expense of
the bike share vendor, or shall be satisfactorily recalibrated by
the vendor.
E.
All bike share operators shall have a minimum bicycle fleet of 50,
and a maximum bicycle fleet of 500. Operators shall notify the licensing
board at least two weeks in advance of any change to fleet size for
any reason other than maintenance and repair.
F.
Bike share operators are required to work in a cooperative manner
with the existing and emerging multimodal transportation systems.
This includes, but is not limited to, car sharing services, the MBTA,
the LRTA and other bike sharing systems. It is the responsibility
of the bike share operator(s) to interact with the City of Lowell
using shared access to CivicReady® or
relevant citizen reporting system or current reporting mechanism.
Such cooperation includes resolving any and all business issues, such
as bikes that are parked in the City of Lowell and need to be retrieved
in a timely manner.
G.
Bike share operators must ensure that their system equitably services
low-income neighborhoods, which may include ensuring accessibility
of bicycles in low-income neighborhoods, offering means of accessing
bicycles that do not require the use of a smartphone and/or access
to a credit or debit card, and offering a multilingual mobile app.
H.
The City Council reserves the exclusive right to terminate this license
at any time and require that the entire fleet of bicycles be removed
from the City of Lowell public ways and spaces within 30 days' written
notice.
A.
All bike share operators shall provide the City of Lowell access
to their bicycle location and trip routing application programming
interface (API).
B.
Bike share operators shall take measures necessary to ensure that
the API does not personally identify users in any way.
C.
The City of Lowell is permitted to publicly use each permitted operator's
API and display real-time data for the purposes of identifying available
bicycles.
D.
The City of Lowell is permitted to make each operator's API open
and available for use by the public.
E.
The City of Lowell is also entitled to quarterly summary data to
allow the City to study the impact of bike sharing on traffic, transportation,
safety, tourism, and economic development.
F.
Prior to issuance of a permit, all bike operators shall execute a
data security agreement to delineate the operators' responsibilities
with respect to data collected on bike share usage within the municipality
and assure compliance with state and federal data security laws for
users.
Applicants shall pay an annual $300 fee for a license for bike
share operation after the conclusion of the pilot program.[1]
[1]
Note: This fee is subject to change and shall be waived in
the first year of the pilot program in recognition of the substantial
costs and risks in the early implementation of a pilot bike share
enterprise in the City of Lowell so long as license holders are not
paying fees to other Massachusetts communities in which they operate.
License holders and applicants are advised to expect such fees to
change in future years.
A.
Immediate suspension. Where necessary to ensure public safety, the
licensing board or the Lowell Police Department under the authority
of the licensing board may immediately suspend the license of any
bike share operator. Following suspension, the licensing board will
promptly hold a hearing where it will determine the length of the
suspension, or lift the suspension, or revoke the operator's right
to provide a bike share service in the City of Lowell.
B.
Suspension or revocation after notice and hearing. After notice to
any licensed bike share operator, the licensing board or the Lowell
Police Department under the authority of the licensing board may hold
a hearing to determine whether the licensee or permit holder is or
has been in violation of this article or any provision of the Code
of Ordinances or state or federal law. If, after such hearing, the
licensing board finds that violations have occurred, the licensing
board may issue a decision suspending the license or permit, imposing
additional conditions on the license or permit, or revoking the license
or permit.
C.
Cessation of operation. When a licensee or permit holder ceases employment
or operation under this article, the licensee or permit holder must
surrender his or her license to the licensing board.
D.
License renewals. All bike share operator licenses expire within
one year of issuance and may be renewed at the discretion of the licensing
board for a further license period not to exceed one year.
A.
Penalties for violation. In addition to other penalties recited herein,
any bike share operator violating any of the provisions of this article
shall forfeit and pay a fine not exceeding $50 for each offense, payable
to the City of Lowell.
B.
Prohibition on assignment. An operator may not assign or delegate,
in whole or in part, its rights to operate under the terms of this
article.
C.
Wintertime operations. The City of Lowell has discretion over whether
the City will continue to remain in operation during winter months.
D.
Severability. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase,
word, or other portion of this article is, for any reason, held to
be unconstitutional or invalid, in whole or in part, by any court
of competent jurisdiction, such portion shall be deemed severable,
and such unconstitutionality or invalidity shall not affect the validity
of the remaining portions of this article, which remaining portions
shall continue in full force and effect.
