Skip to main content

Bird enables reports of poorly parked and damaged e-scooters

Bird is to roll out an app feature which allows people to report poorly parked or damaged electric scooters to the company. It is an attempt to solve one of the biggest bugbears surrounding the deployment of scooters and dockless bikes – the issue of what happens when users abandon or abuse the vehicles. Bird says the app’s new ‘community mode’ will improve parking and safety in the cities where it operates, such as Portland and Salt Lake City. The company will use reports to reposition poorly parked e-
November 15, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
Bird is to roll out an app feature which allows people to report poorly parked or damaged electric scooters to the company.


It is an attempt to solve one of the biggest bugbears surrounding the deployment of scooters and dockless bikes – the issue of what happens when users abandon or abuse the vehicles.

Bird says the app’s new ‘community mode’ will improve parking and safety in the cities where it operates, such as Portland and Salt Lake City.

The company will use reports to reposition poorly parked e-scooters and make sure damaged models are no longer available for riding. Also, the company will notify mechanics to remove the damaged vehicles from the road to be repaired.

Travis VanderZanden, CEO of Bird, says the company wants to work with communities to help alleviate problems associated with congestion and carbon emissions.

"Community mode gives any individual the power to engage with Bird in real time so that we can work together on making our streets safer and people-friendly,” VanderZanden adds.

Bird has already established a global %$Linker: 2 Internal <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 4 36382 0 link-external safety advisory board false /categories/utc/news/bird-establishes-board-to-help-increase-safety-for-e-scooter-riders/ false false%> to improve safety for its e-scooter riders.

In the UK, a similar issue has emerged in London. Speaking to ITS International, Adam Warnes, vice president of UK operations at Passport, says the rise of %$Linker: 2 Internal <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 4 36821 0 link-external dockless cycles false /categories/utc/news/passport-brings-traffic-management-platform-to-the-uk/ false false%> are causing problems for councils.

“Dockless bikes came in overnight and have created a huge amount of problems for local authorities with bikes being dumped and with no one having an understanding of usage, ownership or licensing,” Warnes adds.

Related Content

  • December 19, 2018
    Aptiv opens technical centre in Las Vegas
    Aptiv has opened a technical centre in Las Vegas, US, to gather insights on its fleet of autonomous vehicles (AVs) and to improve safety operator training. Aptiv says its AVs are supporting more than 1,600 destinations across Clark County and the city, including entertainment venues such as the Las Vegas Convention Center and City Hall. In May, Aptiv launched 30 AVs in the city to pick up riders using Lyft’s app and network. The new, 130,000 square-foot technical centre will facilitate vehicle opera
  • August 20, 2014
    Enhanced WISETRIP final event
    The Enhanced WISETRIP final event, which takes place in Brussels on 29 August, will provide an opportunity to showcase the achievements of the Enhanced WISETRIP project and contribute to the debate on priorities for delivering EU-wide multi-modal travel information. Enhanced WISETRIP has developed a unified intermodal planner for international journeys which incorporates functions for planning, booking and travelling multimodal journeys adapted to user needs including multiple trip criteria, environment
  • October 23, 2012
    TRL and TomTom announce partnership on Congestion Index
    TRL and TomTom have announced here at the ITS World Congress that they have launched a new partnership to offer more detailed analyses of the results published in TomTom’s quarterly Congestion Index which covers major metropolitan areas in Europe and North America. The partners say the collaboration will see the Congestion Index being put to practical use in solving local congestion issues. TRL traffic consultants are able to work with detailed TomTom data to produce customised analysis which meets the need
  • June 28, 2018
    Mobike e-fences prevent cyclists from illegal parking in Shanghai
    Mobike has partnered with police in Shanghai to implement electronic ‘fences’ that prevent cyclists from parking around People’s Square in Lujiazui and other prohibited areas. The bike sharing company’s new app feature flags these locations up in grey to alert riders. Cyclists who try to park in these areas receive a text alert and an alarm and will lose Mobike points and their app credit rating will drop. Those who continually offend will be banned from using the service. Users can locate recommended pa