Article content continued

With Bird and Lime already established in Edmonton, Erturk said Roll won’t be making the same mistakes those companies made when they first started.

“In Montreal, the municipality actually banned the scooters,” he said. “Bird and Lime launched there and the city didn’t like how they operated. We want to change that. We want to work with municipalities, not just asking for permits.”

He added safety is No. 1 for the company, mentioning Roll has a speed limiter for first-time riders and will offer free helmets to patrons.

Photo by Ian Kucerak / Postmedia

Petre said the new competition won’t change Bird’s plans.

“I think people who like to ride Bird scooters will stay loyal,” she said. “We also have a good understanding from last year where people actually want to ride them. We know how to provide that service and how to make it reliable.”

She added Bird will also be offering additional services but didn’t go into details.

Alex Youn, communications and public affairs manager with Lime, was also not worried about the new rival, adding his company offers a top-quality product.

“I think that if someone were to pay a little bit more for a premium product that they feel safer on that’s something we would encourage folks to do,” he said.

Lime will be offering a weekly pass at $4.99 that unlocks scooters for seven days and a group rate which allows for up to five scooters to be unlocked.

All e-scooter companies charge a dollar to unlock and then an additional charge per minute. At the moment, Bird and Roll are charging about 0.35 cents per minute.