Bird micro-mobility representatives are making the rounds of local community groups giving residents a birds-eye view on proper electric scooter etiquette.\u00a0
\n“We\u2019re giving a grand overview of the universe from Bird\u2019s perspective,” said Maurice A. Henderson II, Bird\u2019s director of government partnerships of his mission. “We (Bird) invented the space for scooter sharing and we were the first ones, as far as I know, in this market.”
\nHenderson offered statistics reflecting micro-mobility\u2019s large and growing share of the San Diego transportation marketplace.
\n“Fifty-plus percent of our riders polled recently used scooters as a commuting tool,” he said. “Twenty-seven percent of the trips they used to take on Ubers and Lyfts and taxis are now scooters. People are using it as a part of their commute home, as opposed to getting in their car in rush hour.”
\nAdded Henderson: “Our spike in ridership now usually starts on Friday afternoon between 3 and 7 p.m. People are now starting their weekends, Saturday mornings, taking Bird rides.”
\nBird is all in on encouraging its riders to wear helmets, obey the City\u2019s new scooter regulations and to educate riders on proper etiquette and rules of the road on Bird Rides app available on iPhone and Android. Riders, to get started: Download the app and enter their credit card information, find a Bird using the map feature, bring a helmet and wear it, tap the Unlock icon to choose their Bird, then put one foot on the Bird and use the other to give themselves a couple of pushes (like a regular scooter or skateboard).
\n“One of the first things you see when you open our app, besides no riding on sidewalks, is the message to obey the rules of the road and to wear a helmet,” pointed out Henderson, noting, “We\u2019ve given away 65,000 free helmets over the last couple of years. We offer free helmets via the app that you can order for a $10 shipping cost.”
\nConcerning Bird customer service, Henderson said, “We\u2019re an operator who actually has an operations team that\u2019s out there.”
\nBird also has devised a way for riders, or even non-riders, to report illegal scooter use to the company.
\n“On our app, you can report to Bird when you see somebody improperly using a vehicle, inclusive of double riding, kids riding, etc.,” said Henderson. “We can then actually reach out to the individual rider on the back end. We\u2019re trying to continually educate them (riders) on proper etiquette.”
\nAdded Henderson, “It\u2019s a top priority for us. We want to make sure people are using the bike lanes, hoping to create a more bikable and livable community for everybody. That\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to invest in as a company.”
\nThough it is true many Bird riders are under age 50, Henderson noted, “We\u2019re seeing riders of all ages.”
\nPointing out Bird “has learned from the mistakes from the beginning in fall 2017 to spring 2018,” Henderson added, “We\u2019ve learned a great deal over that time, and we hope our operational excellence is something that\u2019s been showing. We\u2019re doing our best to try and distinguish ourselves.”
\nRegarding transit share between cars and other travel modes, Henderson concluded, “No one is saying we\u2019re going to be getting rid of cars anytime soon. But you can\u2019t build your way (roadways) out of congestion. So you\u2019ve got to find other ways to leverage and use the road together.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bird micro-mobility representatives are making the rounds of local community groups giving residents a birds-eye view on proper electric scooter etiquette.\u00a0 “We\u2019re giving a grand overview of the universe from Bird\u2019s perspective,” said Maurice A. Henderson II, Bird\u2019s director of government partnerships of his mission. “We (Bird) invented the space for scooter sharing and we […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":281027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Bird representative discusses proper scooter etiquette","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[12360,11560,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-duplicate","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}