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

  • ITF Annual Summit 2015
    May 22, 2015
    The Annual Summit of the International Transport Forum 2015 will take place from 27-29 May in Leipzig, Germany, with the theme of Transport, Trade and Tourism. The summit is the unique platform for global discussions on strategies for transport in the 21st century. Since 2008, the Annual Summit has developed into the leading global get-together of the key players in transport and transport-related sectors, providing a unique platform for high-level exchange on strategic policy issues. Transport minist
  • SafeRide joins Genivi Alliance to strengthen C/AV security
    December 6, 2018
    Israel-based cybersecurity firm SafeRide Technologies has joined the Genivi Alliance in a bid to secure connected and autonomous vehicles (C/AVs) from hacking threats. Genivi is a non-profit alliance focused on delivering open source, in-vehicle infotainment and connected software. Hilik Stein, chief technology officer at SafeRide, says the Vsentry cybersecurity software will be available on the Genivi development platform.
  • Reflecting on the EU ITS action plan
    January 7, 2013
    How do national policy positions reflect key facets of the European Commission (EC) ITS Action Plan? How useful are memoranda of understanding (MoU) as association tools? How can associations attract more young people to work in ITS? Finding answers to these questions emerged as key challenges for 2013 at the Network of National ITS Association’s November 2012 meeting in Dublin. Commenting on its commitment to work with Ertico-ITS Europe in surveying national action plan stances, Network chair Jennie Mart
  • Thales and Telstra link up to enable safe airspace for drones
    March 4, 2019
    Thales and Australian mobile network provider Telstra are working together to enable the management of low altitude airspace for autonomous flying taxis, drones and helicopters. The partnership is investigating how 4G and 5G technology and Internet of Things capabilities could enable robust navigation and monitoring of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) – more commonly called drones. Chris Jenkins, chief executive of Thales Australia, says the partnership intends to help customers integrate unmanned aircra