Syracuse DPW Committee Reviews VO Scooter Program Progress – August 5, 2025
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Syracuse DPW Committee Reviews VO Scooter Program Progress – August 5, 2025
The Syracuse Public Works (DPW) Committee met on August 5, 2025, to evaluate the performance of the city's VO scooter program against commitments made during the November/December 2024 contract renewal. Committee members Councilors Williams, Anave, and Hogan, along with DPW Commissioner representatives, questioned VO senior staff about tip-over detection, AI parking enforcement, equity program participation, opportunity zones, and revenue sharing. VO Chief Operating Officer Connor Malden, Director Jeff, and Operations Manager Paul provided updates and fielded concerns.
Discussion Items
- Tip-Over Detection & Response: VO reported that the tip-over detection system now alerts staff instantly. Median response time for tipped vehicles dropped from 16 hours in 2024 to 5 hours and 20 minutes in 2025, a 66% improvement. However, year-to-date tip-over events are running at 250 per day (up from 220/day in 2024), reflecting increased ridership.
- AI Virtual Parking Coach: The AI-powered parking enforcement tool, which provides live feedback and prevents improper parking, has been delayed due to integration challenges. A basic 'guidance model' has been running, improving rider compliance by 10%. VO committed to fully activating the tool in Syracuse by mid-August 2025, following successful on-site testing.
- Equity Program (VO Access): Active ridership in the discounted access program grew from roughly 100 to 278 riders year-over-year, but this represents only 1.5% of total unique riders (20,000). Councilor Williams highlighted the mismatch with city data showing 26% of households lack vehicle access. VO noted that Washington, D.C., achieves about 4% access ridership under a heavily subsidized model, and offered to provide comparative benchmarks from other markets.
- Opportunity Zones: The geographic discount zones, intended to increase equitable access, were scheduled to launch the week of the meeting. Councilors expressed frustration that the maps were not active five months into the season; VO acknowledged the delay and attributed it to technical legwork ensuring no conflicts with other pricing structures.
- Revenue Sharing: VO has paid the city approximately $14,000 for the first quarter, with projections to pay nearly 50% more than initially estimated due to popularity. Councillor Anave noted the per-ride fee is $0.15, calling it "pretty cheap." VO committed to providing monthly financial reports to the council going forward.
- Vehicle Safety & Complaints: Paul described a multi-tiered inspection system: annual overhaul, spring quality control, daily self-diagnostics, customer reports, and low-rating flagging. Each vehicle also receives brake and throttle checks during every battery swap. Complaints forwarded from City Line average 1–2 per week. Councillors noted ongoing constituent concerns about improperly parked scooters and safety, especially related to rider behavior and lack of helmet use.
Key Outcomes
- VO will provide monthly reports on ridership, safety incidents, membership data, and response times to the DPW committee and council.
- VO will share a visual deck demonstrating the AI parking tool and will follow up with a social media-ready complaint reporting graphic.
- The committee expects to see the opportunity zone maps implemented immediately and the AI parking coach activated within two weeks.
- No formal votes were taken; the meeting concluded with a directive for continued accountability and data sharing.
Meeting Transcript
Oh, here are our people right here. Connor, give me a call later on. I got an issue that I was going to talk to the commissioner about. Sure thing. All right. Jeff, you're up here. Sorry. No problem. Oh, thank you. All right, it's now 201. Uh good afternoon, everyone. Glad to be joined here with the DPW committee. Um, in regards to our VOS scooter uh program that we have here in the city of Syracuse. Happy to be uh joined by President Pro Temp uh Hogan, uh Councillor Anave, Council Williams, uh Connor and Jeff from uh VO. We're glad to have you here today. Um we're getting straight to the point. I don't foresee this meeting being too long. Um we just want to talk about the promises that were made um when we had a revisit of the VO program here in the city of Syracuse and uh what that would look like in the near future, uh potentially moving forward. Um so how do you want to start with some questions first and then? Yeah, I think um you know, uh I realize you're pinch hitting for for Eric who is still on paternity leave. Uh for Neil, same same consideration. Neil, I didn't realize Neil was out. Yeah, we're good. Um, the some of the agreements that we got to last November December were around the tip over technology, the AI, the um uh the opportunity zones and um kind of increasing participation and ridership for the access program. Um the last report I got from uh Eric was uh early on in the season and for the access program. He gave me about three percent of rides, which was uh similar figure to the prior year. Um and uh we you know, we look at micromobility as being part of the transportation landscape, and you know, we hear statistics about one four families doesn't have access to a vehicle. Um survey data uh is provided often talks about individuals not having access to a vehicle, um and kind of the the mismatch or misalignment between the number of rides given to individuals in the low-income programming and the claims of you know, no car and household and no access to to vehicle. So those are you know from in terms of our contract renewal, those were the four points that were made and I'd like to revisit each of those. Sure. Um so let me just start uh Connor Malden, Chief Operating Officer. Um so they o is a as you as you identified, Counselor, uh uh micromobility service that is a very important part of our transportation landscape. Um about 26% of our households do not have access to a vehicle. Uh and and um my colleague for friend uh Jeff from uh Valeo can can talk a little bit more about uh some specifics of the program. Um but also want to identify that um this is a program that serves city employees as well. Um I just heard from Commissioner uh Fordock at DPW um that a number of sanitation workers use this program every day to get to the DPW uh site, uh which is not uh by by nature of its location on the DPW campus, not terribly well accessed by public transportation. So um not only is this serving residents but also our employees in City Hall as well. You know, I don't think anything's arguing the utility of the the program and the concept of micromobility program, it's more the you know, the details of the way it plays out within our city. Great. I'll turn it over to Jeff. Yeah, absolutely. First off, thank you all for having me and the opportunity to come speak with you with your questions and concerns under our deal thing. Green Lance provide and to provide this update. Um so very appreciative for that. And so I I suppose, counselor, uh if I may ask, would you like me to sort of run through kind of a general you know, set of updates? Would you like to me to spot excuse me, me to respond to specific questions? How would you like to proceed here? We can do the updates first and then we'll go to specific questions after that. Absolutely. So, yeah, as as counselor Williams mentioned, um our renewal at the end of last season and prior to this year, you know, per uh sort of stipulated several areas in which you know via service was meant to uh evolve and essentially improve.
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