E-scooter company Bird says it’s grounding operations in San Francisco. The company said San Francisco’s regulatory environment and fines making it too hard to operate. Christie Smith reports.
E-scooter company Bird says it’s grounding operations in San Francisco.
Bird, which has operated in San Francisco since 2018, released a statement that read in part:
“Unfortunately. the regulatory environment in the city, including the fine structure, has been uniquely challenging, making it extremely difficult to operate a financially sustainable program.”
San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin disagreed and didn’t hold back when asked about it.
“San Francisco has been doing something very similar to other cities, but Bird has been a bad actor and we’re happy to see this Bird fly the coop,” he said.
Peskin added the city has taken great steps in getting scooters off sidewalks and while they’re good transportation solutions, the city has implemented regulations to address the new issues that can come with new technology.
“If they area parked illegally, blocking entrances to businesses. for example, there are warnings and if there is a repeat offender appropriate fines, none of them are onerous. The other companies have been seeing massive behavioral change in the people who use them,” he said.
Bird said it proposed changes to support better riding and parking compliance and asked the city for reductions in fines while they implemented changes but couldn’t reach an agreement.
“I would argue that you just got sour grapes from a company that was high handed and abusive,” Peskin said.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
In a statement, SFMTA said in part, that “we are disappointed by Bird's decision to leave the San Francisco market but look forward to continuing work with Lime and Spin as we fully integrate scooter sharing into San Francisco’s transportation network.”
