“A lot of these companies roll into town, flout local regulations, see what they can get away with and how far they can push cities to accommodate them,” said Chloe Eudaly, a Portland city commissioner. “I feel like there is somewhat of a reversal of that trend among these companies and they are learning that’s not necessarily the best way to do business.”

Other cities are establishing permit programs to limit the impact of unexpected scooter invasions. Washington, for example, said in November that companies could deploy no more than 600 scooters each, which Bird argued would make it “impossible” to provide full service.



Bird, Lime and Skip received permits to operate in Portland. They handed over a wealth of data about scooter rides, giving city regulators access to information about where each trip started, the route it followed, where it ended and what time of day it occurred. Personal information on riders, such as payment data, was not shared.

Portland capped the number of scooters at about 2,000, roughly divided among the three companies. Mr. Scheer, from Lime, said the cap system made it difficult to determine how many scooters a city actually needed.

But he added that the limits forced scooter companies to hone their operations, offer scooters with smoother rides and ensure they were deployed in neighborhoods where they could draw the most riders. And the caps forced the start-ups to compete on how well they could comply with the city’s mandates rather than playing a numbers game.

“We don’t think this is a land-grab type of business. This is one where you have to solve problems in a sustainable way,” said Sanjay Dastoor, the chief executive of Skip. “Having more vehicles on the road isn’t going to help if there aren’t places where people can ride them and feel safe.”

The data that Portland collected allowed the city to assess whether e-scooters live up to their promises of reducing pollution and congestion. According to a citywide survey, 34 percent of residents who used the scooters and took a survey said they had used e-scooters to replace driving their own car or taking an Uber.