Appleton Ceases Contract Negotiations With Bird Inc – Will Not Seek New Contract For E-Scooters

The Municipal Services Committee met 04/08/2024 and, as an information item, received an update on Bird scooters. It looks like Bird scooters in Appleton will be no more.

I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:

The initial memo submitted to the committee indicated that the city’s contract with Bird had ended at the end of 2023 and staff had not engaged in talks with them about a future contract because Bird was in the middle of bankruptcy proceedings and had not paid Appleton some of the fees that it owed.

Director of Public Works Danielle Block reported to the committee that since the writing of that memo Bird had paid the city the remainder of what it owed. Additionally the bankruptcy proceedings had finished, and Bird had reorganized under a new parent company called Third Lane Mobility which also manages a company called Spin.

The last remaining problem that had to be resolved was a solution to parking the scooters. Bird had talked about restricting parking to certain areas such as by taking up a city owned parking stall and striping it for scooters. Bird, however, was not interested in owning or maintaining its own private parking areas.

Bird had also talked about implementing a restricted parking feature on the app that would cause the user to continue to be charged if the user ended the ride but did not park the scooter within designated areas.

Director Block had not been comfortable moving forward with contract negotiations with Bird because of the bankruptcy and payment issue. She also had not felt that the parking solutions Bird had offered were suitable for the city. As a result, she had not continued contract negotiations, but if the committee asked her to proceed she could open them up again.

The alderpersons present at the meeting all seemed to agree that not continuing with the Bird program made sense. Even the alderperson who had initially been in favor of the scooters felt they weren’t working in Appleton.

Alderperson Nate Wolff (District 12) said, “I agree with the memo, and I think that we’re on the right track. And that is as a person who really wanted bird scooters, but I can see that this isn’t where we should be, and they’re not working well with us.”

Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) felt that in practice they were not fulfilling their initial intended purpose, “When we first welcomed Bird and the scooters into the city of Appleton, we were told that it was, you know, a great transportation option for that last mile. And I liked that idea. But in practice, I’ve seen it much more as a recreational outlet. And, you know, I’ve ridden them; they’re fun, but the–with the company having problems, with the parking problems, they’ve generally become much more of a nuisance than a benefit, at least to the people in my district and what I’m hearing. So I would be absolutely fine with not continuing discussions with them.”

View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1189636&GUID=09F89F08-0149-42BE-BF7B-4465544974D1