Fast forward to that same day, about 5 hours later, I wrapped up work for the day, grabbed my stuff, walked down the stairs and exited the doors to the street...and there I saw it. Another black electric scooter.

But I noticed that the scooter was was just kind of...left there alone. And while I stood there and waited for my gf to pick me up, I got more and more curious because no one was watching it. Remember, this was before they even had the Bird logos on them, and I didn't want to approach what appeared to be someone's private property.

I stared at it and wondered if someone is just grabbing a to go from the restaurant next door, will they be back out in a second? Nope, no one came for it. I even wondered if it's a new type of vehicle-sharing app or something but decided no way because it wasn't parked in a "station" with other scooters. I was used to seeing the neon green Breeze Bikes (Hulu Bikes) around the city. You lock and unlock the hulu bikes only from specialized bike racks installed in the sidewalk.

Santa Monica didn't have Lime Bikes back in Sept '17 (we do now) so I wasn't used to seeing dockless vehicles parked around the city. I later learned that dockless bike sharing has been a thing for quite a while now. But on that day that Bird first launched, not knowing what it was, it just looked like someone rode up, parked their scooter, and walked away. No locks, nothing.