President/Secretary of TWU Local 250A op-ed opposing dockless bike companies in favor of "Bay Wheels" (Motivate/GoBike)
The dockless micromobility industry forces low-income people to fight over the pennies paid to contractors for recharging bike and scooter batteries overnight. Meanwhile, its scooters clutter streets, block wheelchairs and create a public nuisance. Jump, one of the biggest dockless bike-rental companies, is now owned by Uber, a company with a long history of disrespect for and mistreatment of its workforce.
This is not the public transportation future San Francisco wants. The city deserves transportation networks that are reliable, equitable, safe and well-maintained. Ford GoBike — currently being rebranded by its new operator, Lyft, as Bay Wheels — was supposed to be that system, with long-term commitments from the public and private sectors to build it that way. The long-term contract allows the bike-rental program to become an extension of public transit with a workforce made up of full-time, high-quality jobs.