Detroit is packed with electric Bird scooters. Here's how they work

JC Reindl | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption People try out new electric bird scooters People try out the new electric Bird scooters Monday in downtown Detroit. The scooters are part of a pilot sharing program that started in the city in July. Joey Delgado, Special to the Detroit Free Press

Three weeks since arriving in downtown Detroit, rental scooters are multiplying in number and surging in popularity with little of the angry backlash so far that has happened in some other states.

There are now dozens of the electric scooters zooming along sidewalks, streets and bike lanes in and around downtown, reaching speeds of up to 15 mph. People are riding them to sight-see, shorten their walking time to appointments, even to commute to work if they live nearby.

For now, all the scooters belong to one company, Santa Monica, California-based Bird Rides, which started last year and calls its scooters "Birds." Detroit is the only Michigan city to get them, and the number of Birds on the street has grown each week.

The cost to ride a Bird starts at $1, then 15 cents per minute. (Discounts are available for low-income individuals.) Riders must be at least 18 years old and possess a credit card and driver's license. The scooters are on the streets from 5 a.m. until dusk, or about 8 p.m.

"I love them," said Holli Perkins, 48, who lives near Eastern Market and works downtown near Campus Martius. "For me it's a mixture of fun and an easy way to get from one side of town to the other. Sometimes I am tired after work; I don't want to walk to Greektown to go get ice cream."

Rental scooters by Bird and competitors Lime and Spin have been entering cities across the country. They have proven controversial in a few areas, particularly out West, where some find the ubiquitous scooters annoying and a pedestrian hazard. There are numerous photos and videos posted online of people damaging scooters by throwing them, burning them, burying them, even smearing them with poop.

Current state of affairs in San Francisco’s SOMA district. pic.twitter.com/9j7qP9qaLr — Chris Hinkle (@lilhinx) April 24, 2018

For the moment, Detroiters and Birds are still apparently enjoying their honeymoon period. Most people interviewed for this article had a positive or neutral opinion of the scooters. Still, a few individuals reported seeing or experiencing a scooter nearly collide with a pedestrian at high speed.

"I think they're a pain ... riding down the sidewalk real fast," said downtown worker Janine Strong of Lincoln Park, who gave her age as over 50."I think the (MoGo) bikes are a good idea. Scooters, I don't know."

A Bird Rides spokesperson declined an interview for this article, but said the company encourages people to report bad scooter behavior by emailing hello@bird.co, calling 866-205-2442 or via app messaging.

"Our team investigates all reports and takes action to curb irresponsible behavior," the spokesperson said in an email.

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Wounded, dead Birds

The Free Press did find two vandalized scooters this week along Woodward across from Little Caesars Arena. Both wounded Birds had their electronics ripped out and one also had a severed brake line.

The Bird spokesperson wouldn't comment on whether vandalism or theft has been an issue in Detroit.

Several cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver and Charleston, South Carolina, have tried banning the scooters. Media reports say the biggest complaints in those cities were too many scooters on the sidewalks and how the scooters then piled up and got in the way after people left them.

In Detroit, some ambitious individuals are earning extra cash by locating battery-dead Birds and taking them home to recharge. The standard payout for charging one scooter and releasing it is $5, and can go as high as $20 for a scooter that was hard to locate.

The recharged Birds must be deployed back on the streets by 7 a.m. Unlike riders, rechargers aren't required to have a driver's license.

"I take one home, charge it overnight, bring it back," said Greg Kline, 27, who lives near Lafayette Park.

Perkins, the enthusiastic rider, said she just signed up to become a Bird charger and is waiting for the charging equipment to arrive. She anticipates hunting down and recharging many scooters at once as a side hustle.

"I have a little minivan, so I can put a whole bunch of them in there," she said.

How they work

To use the scooters, riders must first sign up with the Bird smartphone app. They next unlock the scooters with the app and rent them by the minute. When done riding, people can simply leave the scooter most anywhere. Unlike MoGo bikes, the scooters aren't returned to docking stations.

"I see a lot more people riding them than the MoGos," said Bryan Grecko, 27, as he stepped onto a Bird outside Chase Tower in downtown.

The two-wheeled Birds are tracked by GPS and emit distressing chirps if someone attempts to move one without going through the unlock process. A group of Bird scooters is referred to as a "nest."

Asked whether the scooters are luring away MoGo's bicycle riders, MoGo founder and Executive Director Lisa Nuszkowski said in a statement Friday that "Detroit continues to need more mobility options, and MoGo believes that there is room for everyone in the city’s growing transportation ecosystem."

Bird Rides notified city officials before it dropped off the scooters late last month, said Mark de la Vergne, Detroit's chief of mobility innovation. The city published legal guidelines for the scooters that permit people to ride them on sidewalks, but "only when doing so presents a low risk of disturbance to pedestrians," who still have the right of way.

The city has imposed a cap of 300 scooters for each scooter company that comes to Detroit. That could be adjusted in the future, depending on how things go, de la Vergne said.

As of Friday, the city had heard no complaints about the scooters, de la Vergne said.

“At this point it’s been overwhelmingly positive. We’ve heard a lot of good things from folks," he said. "In general, people that have been using them, once they're done, have been respectful of the sidewalk and putting them where they need to be."

Low batteries

The Bird spokesperson said the scooters will likely leave Detroit during harsher winter months. However, the company is working to "ruggedize our flock" to make Birds available year-round.

Among riders, the most common gripes are too few scooters available during rush hour and battery levels are often too low by late afternoon to travel far.

"This one right here is low so you can't even use it," Alexander Gillis, 30, of Detroit said about a scooter parked on a Fort Street sidewalk around 4:30 p.m. last week.

"The only thing is across the city, you'll find a lot of them that are dead. But other than that I love them," said Sabir Hussain, 22, of Sterling Heights.

Joe Guziewicz, 55, of Grosse Pointe said he is now getting to meetings downtown a lot faster using the scooters than he did walking or driving and parking. He prefers riding Birds to MoGos because the scooters don't require out-of-the-way trips to docking stations. Still, he sometimes must walk a couple blocks to find an available scooter.

"I can just jump on these and it's way more convenient," he said.

Free Press staff writers Jim Schaefer and Marc Daalder contributed to this report.