Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

The city of Newport Beach has implemented a moratorium on the operation of e-scooter companies in the region because of the problem co. Furthermore, as the e-scooters keep pouring into coastal cities across California, some cities have banned the companies from operating the devices, while other cities are scheming related regulations to try to tame down the opposition from the people against it. New technology development has outpaced the work of creating regulation and rules to accommodate them, it further increases the risk of mismanagement and public resentment. New technology has an overall benefit to the well-being of the human, e-scooters, in this case, can provide numerous beneficial support for the commuters and people using for entertainment. However, since the topic is relatively new and the e-scooters just start operated in recent years, even the cities’ regulations do not provide a comprehensive scope of the problems and the potential hazards. The surging of e-scooters in various cities thus nudge the need for more comprehensive regulations to prevent negative externalities from happening to the pedestrians, and investigations into the problems. The research is able to create a template for the future statewide e-scooters policy that can coordinate the regulations in the state, and protect the right of use of the street for the pedestrians, the motor vehicles, the bicycles. The complete regulations based on the context of the region will establish a way to maximize the benefits of using e-scooters and minimize the negatives caused by them.The analysis will be divided into four sections. First is to identify the geographical composition in the city of Newport Beach, and other related data as well as, demographics, party affiliation, opinions on regulation, and most important the public approval ratings on e-scooters. Second, we will identify other coastal cities in southern California that share the similar cultures and demographics with Newport Beach and draw existing regulations they have implemented, the outcomes of the implementation, and the report of the opinions of each city for cross analysis. Third, our group will be starting interviewing different cities’ officials, the reporters who are responsible for writing the related project, and the scholars specializing in transportation, urban planning to acquire a more complete picture of the issues. Last, after collecting the data, the group will be drafting comprehensive costs and benefits analysis based on the facts and data we collected, and then identify the suitable regulations from a mixture of existing regulations that can best reflect the cultural and political phenomena in the city. The complete analysis will be capable of showing what are the positives and negatives effect to implement the e-scooters in the city of Newport Beach.Any future relatable research can build on our findings, and add additional data collections over the years in order to focus on the urban planning development aspects. It is critical to analyze how the future planning will be amended to accommodate all motor devices on the streets (Complete-Street) and keep the policy implemented up to date to prevent unnecessary negativities.