E-bikes on trails, scooter rentals get city council’s approval

Albuquerque residents will soon be able to ride e-bikes on Open Space trails and may eventually see electric rental scooters around town thanks to two different pieces of legislation passed by City Council. 

The legislation will still need to be signed into law by Mayor Tim Keller. 

After a month-long summer break, city councilors spent much of a 8-hour meeting Monday debating the e-bike and scooter proposals and — after one councilor flipped her position — upheld a mayoral veto on municipal election changes. 

E-bikes on Open Space trails 

After a drawn-out debate and more than 20 residents asking the panel to take more time with the proposed ordinance, councilors voted 8-1 to allow electric bikes on both paved and unpaved Open Space trails.

The legislation — sponsored by Councilor Brook Bassan — has received pushback from more than 400 petition signers, asking the council to table it until there is more public input. 

Terry Storch, who sent the petition to the council, attended the meeting and told councilors the petition is “not about a ban of e-bikes, this is about voices being heard.” 

Vice chair of the Open Space Advisory Board, Donald Meaders, acknowledged that Bassan attended one of the board’s meetings and noted its concerns about the proposal but Meaders still asked the council to “allow time for public input and some studies before this is passed.” 

Bassan however said the ordinance has gone through the Land Use Planning and Zoning Committee three times and it has had more discussion, evaluation and compromise “than any other bill I have seen thus far.” 

“It was deferred at full council so that we could now have more time over the break for people to hear about it and learn more and have more discussions and input and now here we are,” Bassan said. “I don’t think this has been rushed, especially in comparison with other legislation.”

Electric scooter rentals 

An ordinance that aims to attract electric scooter and bicycle rental companies by lowering entrance fees passed unanimously. 

Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn, who sponsored the ordinance change, said the new rates will put Albuquerque on par with other cities that already have electric scooter rentals. 

Lime — one of the world’s largest shared electric vehicle companies — has expressed interest in operating in Albuquerque and hopes to bring their scooters to the metro area. 

Robert Gardner, Lime’s director of market expansions, told City Desk ABQ the company has been talking with the city for more than a year about a potential partnership. Gardner attended the meeting and told councilors Lime already sees Albuquerque residents opening its app looking for its services in the city and the company wants to give residents what they are looking for. 

Fiebelkorn also said technology has come a long way since the last time the city had rental scooters — which was before COVID-19. She said the users will now continue to be charged if the scooters are not returned properly, preventing abandoned scooters from littering the city. 

“We want to make sure that it’s for everyone,” Fiebelkorn said. “There are folks in our community that do not have vehicles, that need that last mile to be able to get groceries home from the art station, and I think this will do it.”

Mayor’s veto on council’s voting changes 

On a 5-4 vote, councilors voted to uphold Mayor Keller’s veto of the council’s proposal to change the threshold to win municipal elections. 

Initially, Councilor Klarissa Peña voted in favor of the proposal but voted against a veto override Monday night.

Keller vetoed earlier this month a proposal that would have made it possible to win a city election with less than 50% of the vote. Councilors originally approved the measure on a 6-3 vote with the intention of sending it to voters in November. The aim was to replace the current majority voting system — which requires a candidate to receive 50% of the total vote in order to win — with a plurality voting system and eliminate run-off elections. 

“This veto is a veto of voters,” Council President Dan Lewis said. “I trust the people of Albuquerque. This veto is not a veto against how we do elections, it’s a veto against allowing the people of the city of Albuquerque to be able to have a say.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include that the mayor still needs to sign the e-bike legislation into law.

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