Syracuse Transportation Committee Discusses Veo Bike Contract Renewal on February 4, 2026
Syracuse Transportation Committee Discusses Veo Bike Contract Renewal on February 4, 2026
On February 4, 2026, the Syracuse Transportation Committee, chaired by Councilor Nave, met to discuss the renewal of the contract with Veo (vehicle bikes). Veo representatives Reed Neal (Partnerships and Policy Manager), Paul Calabufo (Operations Manager), and Jeffrey Hoover (Director of Government Partnerships) presented updates on program performance, investments, and future plans. Councilors expressed concerns about safety, parking, enforcement, equity, and community outreach while acknowledging the program's benefits.
Discussion Items
- Veo Performance and Investments (2025): Reed Neal reported that Veo made approximately $250,000 in new financial investments, including $50,000 in trip fees paid directly to the city, $130,000 in direct rebates to riders, and grants to the Creek Rats. Automated tip-over detection was launched, reducing cure time from 16 hours to 4 hours and 45 minutes (a 70% improvement). The virtual parking coach prevented over 10,000 instances of bad parking. Response times for requested retrievals improved: median dropped from 2 hours 33 minutes to 2 hours 11 minutes, with 92% resolved within the three-hour cure time (up from 77%).
- Ridership Growth: Rides increased 34% year-over-year, with 73% occurring on weekdays. Rides per vehicle per day rose 13% to 1.7 (a benchmark of 1.0 is considered good). The program served over 30,000 unique riders (a 20% increase), and the median trip fee decreased by 2%. The low-income VO Access program grew 90% year-over-year.
- Rider Demographics: Most riders are not students; a significant proportion lack driver's licenses and live in low-income households. Ridership does not hinge on Syracuse University’s calendar—summer utilization is higher.
- Revenue Share: Veo paid the city 15 cents per trip (excluding discounted trips), totaling nearly $50,000 in 2025.
- Opportunity Zones: Riders ending trips in designated opportunity zones receive an automatic $1 refund. Over $130,000 was refunded to riders. Zones were selected based on low car ownership, low income, and limited transit options. The map was expanded during the year.
- Enforcement and Violations: Veo issued 51% more violations in 2025 (outpacing the 34% ride increase). Violations include warnings, monetary fines, and suspensions. Nearly 200 riders were suspended and required to pass a quiz on rules before riding again.
- Local Team Investments: The van fleet increased by 33%, labor hours by 22%, and over 40 Syracuse residents were employed (80% from the city proper).
- Future Initiatives: Veo plans to launch new vehicles (a three-wheeled trike for mobility-impaired riders and a cargo bike for grocery trips), a partnership with Centro offering a $1 rebate for rides connecting to bus stops, an equity working group, AI-powered helmet detection (carrot approach), and a cognition test for intoxication. They also introduced larger pre-authorizations to prevent abrupt ride cutoffs.
- Councilor Concerns:
- Safety: Councilor Nave raised concerns about intoxicated riders, children riding without helmets, and abrupt stops due to low funds. Veo noted the cognition test and helmet detection tools, and that state law does not require helmets for those over 18. They also explained that the motor cuts off gradually and that pre-authorizations help prevent sudden stops.
- Parking and Racks: Councilors noted complaints about bikes left on lawns; Veo reported 44 bike racks in the city (25 pre-existing) and expressed willingness to add more in partnership with DPW.
- Liability: A councilor asked about damage to cars caused by riders. Veo stated they require a subpoena to release personally identifiable rider data and recommended working with SPD.
- Battery Safety: Veo detailed battery inspection, UL certification, cell block fire suppression, and a warehouse with licensed electrical work. Batteries are swapped every 10 rides.
- Equity and Outreach: Councilor noted success with a multilingual outreach event on the north side, which correlated with high VO Access usage. Veo committed to forming an equity working group and providing marketing materials.
- Children Riding: Councilor questioned how minors access bikes despite age restrictions. Veo explained that terms of service require users to be 18, but enforcement is difficult; they are exploring technical solutions but face legal and insurance barriers.
Key Outcomes
- No formal vote was taken, but the committee discussion indicated support for contract renewal with continued improvements.
- Veo committed to providing a map of existing bike racks, collaborating on an equity working group, and increasing community outreach.
- The committee emphasized the need for better advertising of reporting mechanisms (email hello@veoride.com or phone number on bikes) and continued enforcement of parking and safety rules.
- The meeting was adjourned with thanks to the Veo representatives.
Meeting Transcript
Nave chair of the transportation committee. I am joined with my colleagues. Councilor Patrona Jones Rouser, Comic Council President Rita Panayagua, Councillor Donna Moore, Counselor at large, Hannah Aaron Wright. We are here this morning to discuss the renewal of the contract of the vehicle bikes. I have three gentlemen here. If you'd like to introduce yourself. Yeah, thanks for having us this morning. I'm Reed Neal. I'm partnerships and policy manager for VO over the Syracuse Market. I'm Paul Calabufo, the uh operations manager, boots on the ground here in Syracuse. Paul. At last the face to the name. Hi everyone. Uh Jeffrey Hoover, Director of Government Partnerships at V. So what we want to discuss is uh is where do we go with VO? I did speak with Reed and uh Paul yesterday on this. We went over a number of issues. We went over numerous uh constituent complaints and concerns. We we spoke about um a lot of things that bother them from veal being on their wands, uh the safety of vehicle, the bikes itself, they're run on lithium batteries, and uh also where do we go? Where can we have uh land, where can we have some locations throughout the city that it's viable to put them in in safe locations, bike racks where we can have uh science that says VO. And how can we can outreach to the community? How can we uh participate with other organizations and and to be a good neighbor and to be prompt and responsive uh on this issue. So uh Chaff, do you want to start? Uh yeah, absolutely. Um first off, thank you for having us and thank you for the opportunity to have this conversation. And counselor, thank you for those comments. I I couldn't agree more. Um do you wanna and so you know, I think the context I'd like to share here to start with is you know, when we were here uh before council at this time last year, um, you know, we reworked our scope of work, um, you know, uh pr really grateful for for council's input. Um, and we had sort of five North stars uh coming out of that process. And so um, you know, we made uh considerable new financial investments uh in the market uh in the neighborhood of about 200 in the neighborhood of about 250,000 of new spend. Um and that you know was kind of headlined by um $50,000 of net new uh revenue we paid to this directly paid to the city in the form of uh trip fees. Um we also made considerable new investments in in the community and in the equity space, uh 130,000 of direct rebates to riders. Um and then uh you know considerable uh new spend on Paul's team in the form of increased labor budgets, increased van budgets, and we also uh initiated uh for the first time kind of direct financial support in the community. We uh provided grants to uh the creek rats for um uh new equipment uh to do their wonderful work. Uh uh plus you know, over the years we've we've invested considerable amount of staff time uh supporting the Creek Rats as well. Um we launched tip over detection in March of last year. Uh we'll get into this in more detail, but we from in 2025, our team was proactively curing tipped over vehicles without a single without without needing a report from the community uh in about four a little over four and a half hours, which was a 70% improvement from 2024. I already touched on the 130,000 dollars of rebated dollars to riders directly to riders of anyone irrespective of any means testing ended a trip in one of a designated opportunity zone throughout the city, uh got a dollar back on their ride. We launched uh the virtual parking coach we talked about at length when I was here in August uh before this council. Uh we launched that uh we launched that tool uh mid-August, and just since that time we prevented over 10,000 instances of what the the tool determined to be bad parking. Um and then uh we codified a cure time or three hours. We also saw significant improvements uh uh in 2025 relative to 2024. Uh over the course of the year, we you know, we had responded to thousands of tickets uh average time under under that three-hour mark and on an individual basis, you know, north of 90 to 95% uh success rate reaching uh requested retrievals within uh that three-hour mark. So a quick snapshot uh of 2025. We had tremendous program growth, yet again, rides were up 33, excuse me, 34%, 73% of the all of our rides were taken during the weekday uh or were taken, excuse me, during the the work week, quote unquote. So this is not just a weekend pastime. Um the rides per vehicle per day, kind of our base core metric when we look at how well used uh the vehicles are was up 13%. Uh again, weekdays leading the pack here. Um, and just to set context, one ride per vehicle per day is considered good. And so 1.7, nearly two rides per vehicle per day is fantastic.
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