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As Bike-Sharing Business Increases In Sacramento, Lawmakers Wary Of 'Bike Blight'

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — As Sacramento city leaders pave the way for bike-sharing businesses, embarrassing bike-sharing photos are cycling through social media feeds in other big cities.

You might call it bike blight. In Seattle, a photo shows a bike-sharing bicycle locked on top of a stop sign. In Dallas, a photo shows someone put one on a power pole.

"So in places like Seattle, and Washington, DC, we're seeing some of these problems," Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates President Jim Brown said.

Brown says the new self-locking, dockless bicycles that riders can locate using their cell phones are leading to bike blight problems.

"You can lock these bikes anywhere," Brown said.

"We don't want them left in the middle of the street, and we don't want them left in the middle of the park," Brown said.

Brown has been working with Sacramento on a new permit process for bike-sharing businesses to prevent bike blight just months before 900 bike-sharing Jump Bikes arrive this spring.

"We know there are other operators that are interested in operating in our community; we need that system to operate efficiently and reliably and safely," Brown said.

Lawmakers are set to vote on a series of restrictions that would force bike-sharing operators to remove bikes left in nuisance areas within two hours.

The laws would also allow the city manager to suspend or revoke permits quickly.

"If you want to do business here you have to meet these requirements," Brown said.

Sacramento's Law and Legislation committee is set to vote on the new package of bike-sharing laws Tuesday.

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