The Municipal Services Committee met 05/08/2023. One of the items they received was the Bird e-Scooter Report for April of 2023, the first report of the new program year.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for your downloading pleasure.
The report layout was different than it was last year because it was now coming directly from Bird instead of the city. Director of Public Works Danielle Block told the committee that every report the city received, whether it be to the Department of Public Works, the Police Department, or some other way, was routed to Bird so that Bird staff would be aware of the issues. It also allowed more accurate numbers to be included in the report.
7 reported issues/complaints were listed on the April report. Alderperson Vered Meltzer (District 2) asked for details and was told by Director Block that they were mostly parking related. Director Block also offered to ask Bird to separate out complaints into different categories for future reports, so the committee could have a better idea of what the issues were.
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) said that when the committee and Council had discussed renewing the contract with Bird, they had talked about having Bird turn on ID verification, but she didn’t see anything noted about that in the report. A couple other alderpersons remembered discussing that but couldn’t remember what exactly had been decided. Alderperson Katie Van Zeeland (District 5) hoped to talk more, prior to the next report, about how to best maximize turning that feature on and off.
Director Block said that the city had the option to request ID verification be turned on, but it had not been turned on at this point. She said she would work with Bird to update the report to include information regarding whether ID verification was turned on or not and to try to track how that correlated with the number of complaints received.
Regarding complaints, the city was working on shifting the burden of taking complaints away from city staff and moving it entirely over to Bird. They were going to add a page on to the city website with more information on how to contact Bird including a dedicated email that would forward complaints on to Bird.
The city was also now collecting a fee of $0.20 per ride which was an increase from the $0.10 per ride it had previously received. That payment was automatically being sent to the city for deposit based on the number of rides shown within the report.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1101912&GUID=C1E0645D-659F-4353-83F0-5604FA4EDA67
Be the first to reply