Electric scooters pissed everyone off in San Francisco and other capitals come next, as Bird, a $2 billion start-up, prepares to expand to Paris and Tel Aviv.
The scooter sharing startup based in Santa Monica, California, will debut a pilot program where 50 or 100 e-scooters will be posted in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd arrondissements in Paris. If Parisians keep to their grumpy reputation and follow SanFran residents’ vandalism, the next couple of weeks will be definitely entertaining for those against this type of ride-sharing. In Tel Aviv, Bird scooters will be deployed in partnership with the Tel Aviv University.
Why these cities in particular?
A Bird representative told The Verge that both are “tech- and innovation-forward [cities]” and interested in reducing traffic but, as the Verge highlights, Bird still needs to obtain permission from the local authorities.
Perhaps Europe will be more relaxed because the US is definitely not ready to embrace this type of mobility. In San Francisco, the authorities’ crackdown sent various e-scooter start-ups scrambling to obtain permits. In Milwaukee, the city council actually wants to ban electric scooters and even confiscate them. If more Bird-users would follow the company’s main advice, something tells us residents would be less inclined to hate electric scooters.
Be a good neighbor! pic.twitter.com/z52X0mZBKE
— Bird (@BirdRide) July 3, 2018
Also read: ✍Minimalism At Its Best: Eagle, The “World’s Thinnest And Lightest Electric Scooter”✍
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