Strange Bird – Can It Help Traffic Congestion?
By Cheryl Harbour

Leave it to southern California to be the first to operate a scooter sharing service. In the fall of 2017, a startup named Bird started placing its electric scooters around Santa Monica. Since then, the service has expanded to other towns in the area and bike sharing services, such as LimeBike and Spin, are hurrying to get into the game.

Here’s how it works: Using a smartphone app, a person interested in hopping on a scooter locates one of more than 1,000 Birds waiting in various locations. For a minimum charge of $1 and then 15 cents a minute, the commuter (or joy-rider – it can be either) rides the scooter and then parks it. The scooters are picked up each night and charged, then re-distributed in time for the next morning’s batch of riders.

Can you see baby boomers zooming around town on electric scooters? Maybe on those with a seat? You may be skeptical, but come to southern California and you’ll see them. Electric scooters are also especially popular on college campuses – where they may help some students make it on time to a class across campus.  

The founder of Bird is a former executive with Uber and Lyft, Travis VanderZanden. He says he became interested in scooter-sharing when he realized that auto ride-sharing really does nothing to eliminate traffic congestion or pollution. Fans of scooter sharing see great potential as a low-cost solution to “last-mile mobility.”

According to a report by CNN, the Bird’s appeal may extend beyond the West Coast, “Electric scooters have also captured the attention of Mayor Pete Buttigieg from South Bend, Indiana. The city, which has limited transit options due to its moderate density, is interested in using them as a way to improve transportation access. South Bend was one of the first to embrace dockless bikeshare systems, which allow people to park rented bikes on public land.”

Do these Birds “fly” without any problem? Apparently not.  As reported by the Washington Post, the Santa Monica Police Department made 281 traffic stops and issued 97 tickets between the beginning of the year and late February, and the Santa Monica fire department has responded to 8 accidents involving Bird’s scooters.

Regulations haven’t yet caught up to the popular scooters, and people don’t seem to know what the regulations are. For example, Santa Monica officials feel that public safety is threatened by people riding the scooters on the sidewalks or parking them where they create a hazard to pedestrians.

While the authorities may have issues with the scooters, customers seem quite happy. The company says its biggest customer complaint is that there's not enough scooters.

If you’d like to know more about Bird from the start-up and investment perspective, read this article from techcrunch.com.




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